Ke hele kekahi, e hahai nā mea a pau
by GygyFr
Summary: When one is going down, everyone follows. When Steve is shot by a bad guy and has to fight for his life, there are some repercussions on the team and the Ohana. ELEVENTH CHAPTER AVAILABLE
1. chasing the bad guy

Hellooooo everyone! Last days of the year now, and I can't wait to be in 2019!

This "new" story is kinda hard to understand and I have two groups of readers on that one:

\- For those who had followed the story "Nothing - McDanno romance", this is an alternative story I chose to write because I had few reviews and private messages asking me why I have turned that one into a romance, which wasn't my choice at first. As I couldn't explain myself about that, I decided to create this story, to fit more the friendship/bromance Danno and Steve have

\- For those who have not followed this same story, well... If you like McDanno friendship, you will surely love these chapters. If you are more like a romance between the two characters, I highly recommend you to read the first story. You still can read this one though :P

So, if I want to make myself clear, this story is similar to the "Nothing - McDanno romance" story, BUT I added a lot more details AND I only kept the main storyline (Steve injured on the job and everyone dealing with this) with new perspectives too.

I am currently writing the fifth chapter but as usual, you still can ask for things like special lines, special themes, dialogues, secondary storylines, etc... Readers are also a part of the story I create after all ^^

I just hope that you will like this "new" story and that you will leave some reviews after each chapter (how optimistic am I haha). I will add a new chapter once every week (probably on Saturdays or on Sundays)

disclaimers: I DO NOT OWN ANY FICTIONAL CHARACTERS FROM HAWAII 5-0.

It also takes place after the 8th season but before the 9th season, so beware about the storylines we've got so far (I won't spoil you if you still didn't see the 9th season)

I am still not an English native, so I apologize already for any spelling mistakes I could make in this story

ENJOY!

GygyFr

* * *

 **CHAPTER 1**

Like almost every day of the week and year, Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams were in pursuit of a suspect. Right now, they were two smuggling aces who hired a hit man to execute their biggest rival in the business. Steve and Danny openly laughed at this same killer because… He missed his target and was almost beaten to death by his cousins. The poor man had been through a bad time: three broken ribs, a broken nose and jaw, numerous bruises all over his body and a head injury. So, when Duke Lukela took his statement and received the names of his agents, he immediately opted for 5-0 to do the job. The Keola brothers were known in the business for being heavily armed and prepared for any eventuality. Except perhaps for facing the most unpredictable and over-trained NavySEAL of all time.

Yes, McGarrett's name was scaring even the Yakuza away now, and most of the bad guys were keeping a low profile when they heard here and there that they were on the 5-0 list. It made them think twice before doing something and they tried to use the most misguided means to achieve their goals without being noticed. It was both an advantage and an inconvenience: in case Steve and his team were on the trail of a suspicious guy, he was relatively well equipped to give them a hard time, no matter the circumstances. As a result, the special task force had to be more vigilant, and as everyone knows…. It was not a word in the vocabulary of the energetic Steve, far from it. Another word he didn't know: backup.

And yes, to the great despair of his colleague and friend Danny Williams, the SEAL was a pile that never fell flat and he hated having to wait to go headlong and knock down his enemies. At the same time, it was often in improvisation that he distinguished himself the most, so he could not blame him. On the other hand, this ability to rest on one's instincts often resulted in one of the two accomplices ending up in the hospital, often for gunshot wounds.

The collection of information on the most likely location of the Keola brothers lasted only a few minutes, the time for Jerry to do his research and find their main safe house. And it was under these more than optimal conditions that Steve, Danny, Tani, Lou and Junior set off for the address given to them by their liaison officer, as he so fondly recalled. On the way, Steve had expressed his wish to take them by surprise and make this capture in a rather impressive silence, like a SEAL commando operation. Of course, Junior knew exactly what he was talking about, but the others were still confused. Including Danny: the only times he could get a glimpse of their methods ended in a real bloodbath. Without going into details, Steve explained what he expected from his colleagues and each of them understood in a very short time that what they were about to do was both risky and unfortunately the best thing to do.

Since the Keola's Fortress was surrounded by the dense jungle of Oahu, north of Honolulu, the unit's members parked the cars on the last residential road. Steve ordered Junior to stand back and check with his sniper that there was no one in sight who could prevent the team from progressing. Fortunately, the brothers seemed to be well entrenched and without much protection. While securing the area and maintaining radio contact to direct his crew, it took nearly twenty minutes of great silence to reach the front door and finally launch the offensive.

After a countdown and checking whether the door was locked or not, Steve opened it for Danny, the leader of a SEAL team should never enter a room first, while Grover did the same with the back door of the house to let Tani in while Junior stayed out with his long-range weapon, in case the brothers could still escape through an unlisted area. But obviously, the Keola brothers had been waiting for them for a while because once inside, they were caught under fire with automatic weapons. Instinctively, they all took cover and Danny even had time to shoot the elder, Amanu, in the leg, hearing him screaming in pain and insulting the police while the other tried to escape. Seeing that Lou and Tani both had their weapons pointed at him, Amanu laid down his arms while Beala, his younger brother, went down to the cellar to escape Steve and Danny.

As the first one had predicted, the house was equipped with a secret passage, a long tunnel giving thirty meters further into the jungle. Without hesitation, McGarrett rushed inside to pursue Beala followed closely by his teammate, their weapons pointed towards the light at the end of the tunnel. The young man was so exhaustingly fast that when Steve stepped into that famous tunnel, he was already coming out. Acting cautiously while advancing, the soldier used his tracking skills to continue the pursuit while dragging Danny along.

"Danno…"

"Go ahead, I slow you down. Go, I'll catch up with you", the detective then stated in understanding the situation.

He knew Steve well enough to know that he wouldn't want to give up and that it was the right thing to do.

"Are you serious?" he asked, incredulous.

"What do you think, huh? Of course, I'm serious, you smunk! I'm slower than you, and he's alone! Then go for it, I'll catch up with you!"

He could see a slight wince on the Commander's face before he decided to listen to his partner and finally pursuing Beala. Danny knew what he was doing: Steve was much faster alone than when he was with him, there was no doubt about that but most importantly, if he was waiting for him, they would lose track of their suspect and that was not a good thing. Knowing the man, he would surely already be having a possible dialogue in his head if this were to happen. Something like 'it's your fault, you're too slow', coupled with a 'you wouldn't make a good NavySEAL' when he would protest by explaining that he wasn't one and that his knees were hurting him terribly right now to go after a suspect much faster than him. At his own pace, he was sure at one point to fall back on his partner handcuffing Beala.

After all, man hunting was Steve's specialty, his nickname Smooth Dog wasn't for nothing. Danny just knew that he had earned his name and that it was due to his innate talent for tracking, that he had a nose as smart as a dog to track someone. That was all he could get from Joe White and Catherine Rollins, because of course, almost all SEAL missions were classified and just mentioning their existence is punishable by court-martial for a soldier.

Steve, on the other hand, felt in enough good shape to catch up with his prey. For the first time in a relatively long time, he felt he was in able to run a marathon at full speed. Pursuing a suspect was not forty-two kilometers long, but it was a very good exercise to keep in shape and confirm his theory. One step at a time he inhaled and exhaled, as if to give himself a rhythm to keep. The drugs he took daily to slow or even stop the effects of the radiation poisoning he had experienced two years earlier had many side effects, including the onset of intense and sudden exertion, but today he felt nothing at all. No tightening sensation in his chest, around his heart or lungs, no shortness of breath, no blurred vision or shaking. On the contrary, he felt so fit that he thought he was back in his twenties.

Besides, the more seconds passed, the closer he felt close to Beala. After five minutes of intense stalking, he had even managed to be within firing range, but the density of the jungle prevented him from firing optimally. Steve knew the terrain very well to know that young Keola was heading for the city, to the place where they had parked the vehicles before entering the forest. Continuing on his way and knowing that Danny was following him but was much less good at tracking him, he took his radio to give direction to his teammate, hoping that he could get instructions.

"The suspect is heading towards Makiki Pl.", "he shouted in the radio as Beala came out of the vegetation to reach the first road, followed two seconds later by the soldier.

Fortunately, the roads were only used by residents of the subdivision and most of them had already left for work. Only four cars were still parked on the streets, not to mention the ones he and his team had used to get here, which didn't pose many obstacles. As a result, the runaway and his pursuer could easily start shooting at each other at any time without significant collateral damage. The suspect turned around the corner of the main street and for the second time since the chase began, he found himself out of Steve's sight and hearing. He too continued on his way to turn on the main road of the subdivision, before realizing the monumental mistake he had just made. Always keep an eye on the enemy or take precautions to keep an eye on him if they are spotted. He was, but because of the adrenaline running through his veins, he hadn't taken any action to find out where Beala was. And here he was, waiting for him firmly, his gun raised in the air and ready to be used by his owner. A big smile proudly appeared on his face as his finger pulled the trigger for the first time.

Running at full speed, it was difficult for Steve to stop suddenly or take cover to avoid bullets, but without knowing how, he managed to dive behind one of the four cars parked in the street. And for the first time, as he counted his opponent's bullets, the sudden stop of his run opened the door to the side effects of his medication. His chest then tightened more and more with each heartbeat he could feel on his ribs, his right side throbbed him considerably. He swallowed hard to regain control of his breathing before using the car as a shield and shooting several times at younger brother Keola. Once done, he lowered himself while new bullets burst out near him, blowing out the rear windows of the pickup. Six bullets. Knowing that most of the current guns had only eight to ten bullets, he still had to hold out for a few seconds while hoping that his teammate would soon arrive to support him. After all, Danny was his backup as he liked to remind him, to his great despair.

He grabbed his radio, wanting to catch up with his partner so that he could take another direction and catch the suspect from another angle. He took a deep breath again despite the agony in which he was now, the pain in his chest intensifying every time he felt his heartbeat.

"Shots fired! Repeat, shots fired between Makiki St. and Makiki Pl.!"

His piercing vision went out at the same time as his last shouted word on the radio: it was as if a transparent film or a fog thickening at first sight came to blur his eyes. Two new bullets came close to his right ear. Eight bullets and he didn't hear the suspect firing an empty shot. In the heat of the moment, few people could count the number of bullets in a gun, even if they knew their gun well. One had to be relatively well trained to do this. And Beala Keola was certainly not one of those people. It simply meant that his gun did have ten bullets, so he had two left.

Meanwhile, Danny arrived at the edge of the jungle, completely out of breath from his run. When he heard his partner in the radio explaining that he was under enemy fire, he did not hesitate to double his efforts to come to his rescue. Fortunately for him, he was in an angle from which Amanu's younger brother couldn't see him but he was within Steve's reach. From his point of view, he was cornered behind a car and unable to shoot without taking the risk of taking a bullet between the eyes. Finally, the soldier looked up and saw his comrade. Visibly relieved, his left hand landed on his chest while with his right hand he instructed Danny to go around the house to get another angle on Beala and neutralize him by any means. The policeman nodded and began his move while Steve wondered how many bullets he had left.

Because yes, he had counted the number of bullets coming from across the street but not how many bullets were still in his own gun. He unlocked the security to look inside: three bullets plus another in the cylinder. He had to succeed in putting on the ground a target that he could not reach because of his screwing-up vision while succeeding in passing through bullets from the suspect and this, with four bullets without the possibility of reloading. With extreme measures… Steve had to calm down and regain control over his own body, the one that had been struggling to obey him for a few minutes. Stupid drugs. He took a deep breath while pinching his lips with his teeth to stifle a cry of pain and, thanks to his instinct, he used his tracking skills to visualize his target without having an angle of view on it. Often useful, very precise despite appearances and especially impressive to see in action.

He squeezed his grip on his gun and prepared to stand up again to shoot, but the suspect was waiting for him and fired another bullet before he had time to do the same. She just missed it and took the time to pass his weapon through the broken glass to fire his last four bullets. But his vision prevented him from knocking down his target and he soon found himself in a very bad position. Danny had to be quick. He knew that. But above all, he had to move forward discreetly to surprise the second Keola. Going around the house, he entered the garden of the property. He then saw a young woman completely frightened by his sudden appearance, huddled in the back of her terrace waiting for the shots to stop. Their gaze crossed, and Danny understood that he had to show his intentions to continue his path.

He lowered his weapon and raised his free hand, then showed his badge at his belt to make the woman understand that he was a police officer and that she had nothing to fear. She nodded, understanding the situation, and Danny used this non-verbal agreement to continue on his way and raise his weapon in the air. Approaching the street a little closer, he was right in the corner to shoot the suspect, and he didn't hesitate for a second. He pulled the trigger twice to be sure to neutralize his target, watching him collapse to the ground like a dead weight. He then opened the door of the private garden, advancing cautiously into the street before throwing a firm but weak kick into the Beala's pistol so that it would be out of his reach. Two large holes covered his forehead and his blood began to color the pavement, a sign that he was dead. To be more than certain of this statement, he kneeled down as best he could to pass two of his fingers over his carotid artery; he felt nothing at all. He sighed as he stood up, putting his gun in his holster while turning around to finally put his blue eyes on his stubborn teammate. He had come out of his makeshift hiding place, leaning on the gutted car to remain standing, with relief taking shape on his face.

Strangely enough, Danny immediately noticed that something was wrong. Steve had kept his left hand on his chest and this worried him because of what he knew. He was the one who informed his partner about the effects of the medications he was taking on a daily basis because he had not taken the time to look at the instructions. He knew that the slightest sudden and intense effort could have a considerable and unpleasant effect on his heart and breathing, hence his hand on his chest. In theory.

Steve seemed out of breath. It was even worse than that: he felt suffocated as if someone was pressing on his airways to prevent him from breathing. He should never have forced and chased his prey without being accompanied, even though he knew Danny was not far behind. A new pain paralyzed him and weakened him to the point of losing his balance. His right hand slipped along the car as his body rested on the frame before gradually letting himself fall to the ground.

"Steve? Steve!"

He frowned, intrigued by this sudden weakness that he did not know himself. He thought about the whole scene, from the entrance of the tunnel to the collapsing on the sidewalk. And suddenly everything became clear: the symptoms had started when he took the corner of the street and the young Keola shot him while he was trying to take cover as he could. Intrigued, he pulled his left hand off his chest while Danny also collapsed beside him to check in on him. Despite his leather glove, Steve could see that the palm of his hand was covered with blood.

"You've been shot?" Danny then asked, not understanding the whole situation.

"That obvious?' Steve replied almost immediately, regretting it quickly.

The pain became intense as he tried to laugh, his breathing suddenly cut off, forcing him to cough in order to get some fresh air into his lungs. He let out a rumble of anger as his face displayed his suffering. He was already drained of all energy and did not seem able to rest his hand on his chest. Danny observed his partner scrupulously; his bullet-proof vest showed a medium hole in the middle of the front part, big enough to guess that Steve had indeed been shot to the chest. His stomach sank and he had to hold back his urge to vomit in order to remain calm. As he placed his left hand on his colleague's chest, not without hearing yet another growl of pain from him, he grabbed his phone with his other hand and dialed the emergency number.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"This is Detective Danny Williams, badge number 7576. I have an officer down at the intersection of Makiki St. and Makiki Pl. I need an ambulance ASAP!"

Without waiting for an answer from his correspondent, he threw his phone to the ground and focused more on Steve.

"Hey, hey, don't close your eyes, Steve. Stay with me, buddy. Come on, stay with me", Danny asked his mate as he slapped him on the cheeks.

Using much of his remaining strength, the soldier opened his eyes again. The sun was burning his skin despite the sweat dripping on his face, the heat paralyzing him even more as he tried to breathe through the continuous assaults of the suffering he was experiencing. The rays of light becoming a heavy burden he could not bear, he closed his eyes while remaining focused on his primary task: remain conscious.

"Steve! Open your eyes!" a loud voice came to surprise him.

This sudden scream frightened him to the point of reopening his eyes in less time than it took to say it. His vision remained blurry as a shadow came between him and the sun, but he knew it was Danny. He concentrated, squinting his eyelids in the hope of better distinguishing the facial features of this friend whom he considered a brother, the one he had never had and had hoped to find one day. His eyes were burning with every blink, but it didn't matter. What he saw in front of him was much more serious than anything he had ever endured before. Danny was scared. Not the fear he seemed to feel every time he got in the car with him or went on an expedition to hunt bad guys, no. It was an immeasurable and authentic fear that he had only seen five times on Danny since he first met him. A panic he couldn't define because it stuck to his body.

"Been worse…", Steve tried to explain to calm the terror that was invading his partner with the seconds that were passing by.

"I've seen worse, that's all you can say while you're bleeding out on me?" Danny couldn't help but fight back. "You really are an animal!"

Steve knew it, it wasn't the anger that was talking, it was his fear. He felt the policeman's hands shaking on his chest, he could hear his jerky, panicked breathing in his ears. He himself knew that his injury was serious; he had been caught under enemy fire and wounded so many times during his various missions in Afghanistan or elsewhere that he suspected it. And then, a NavySEAL had a relatively important medical knowledge to prepare for any eventuality, so he knew what would happen in the next few minutes while waiting for an ambulance to come to save him. He was going to lose more blood, he was about to go into shock due to this blood loss, to lose touch with the reality around him before closing his eyes without any possibility of reopening them. And then die, optionally. Sitting as he was, with his back against the destroyed car, his body seemed heavier and heavier. The world around him was gradually dying out and what remained visible was now for him a smokescreen, a fog that thickened as time passed.

Anger, fear. The emotions transcending Danny's face were so authentic, in contrast to the emotions Steve showed him on a daily basis, and it made him smile. A grin that made him cough again, the immeasurable pain radiating throughout his entire body. At least what he could still feel moving or shaking. Between two coughing spells, he tried almost in vain to get some air, even a tiny breath, as his lungs sang in unison to express their saturation. They could no longer function while his sputum took a reddish tint, blood was going out of his body from his chest, from the entrance wound, by changing the grey of the asphalt into a bright red, shining in the sun.

Steve McGarrett, although tenacious and never giving up, felt more than diminished. He no longer had the strength to hold on while Danny was keeping him alive now and seemed to want to let tears run down his cheeks. Yes, he understood the situation, it was serious and irrevocable. He knew that his best friend was dying in front of him, in his arms. But he had no right to let him down. Under no circumstances should he abandon him. In a last gesture of pure kindness, gathering his last strength, the NavySEAL began to smile and lay his bloody and icy hand on his brother's right cheek. Three words. In an almost inaudible whisper, Danny had been able to distinguish three words in reading his lips, captivating his heart and soul.

"I am sorry", he pronounced with an iron taste in his mouth.

These last words slammed his face with terrible force. His expression changed completely, from anger and emotion to sadness. As if he finally accepted Steve's letting go. He closed his eyes, letting the tears he held flow freely down his cheeks while taking care to place his boiling hand on his friend's, infallible support until the last second. Deep down, Steve was scared. He had never been afraid to die when he went on a mission, even when he was in a relationship with Catherine. But now everything was different. He, who had no real family, one that was stable with love around him, had found this by accepting Governor Jameson's proposal to create a special unit in Honolulu. At no time would he have suspected that this working relationship would quickly turn into a friendship, a fraternal love. Especially with Danny, who from the beginning seemed drastically opposed to everything he was personally.

Ever since he knew him, the thought of dying one day haunted him. A NavySEAL who admitted to being afraid when, for survival's sake, he was trained to hide them and overcome them? When he went to North Korea to pick up Jenna's fiancé, when he understood that he had been set a trap and found himself in front of Wo Fat, he was afraid. When he found himself in front of Omar Hassan in Afghanistan, captured and tortured to be simply an American who wanted to save children from a suicide bomber death that they would never have wanted, when they were all ready to behead him with a badly sharpened machete in front of the camera so that he could serve as an example to the Western world, he was so afraid that he had screamed in pain. When he took three bullets in the chest in a plane and Danny had to save him by landing as he could on one of Hawaii's heavenly beaches and learned that his friend and brother had given him a part of his liver in order to save his life, he vowed never to go back so close to death. When he was in that ridiculous combination, deprived of all his senses and hallucinating, it had been relatively difficult not to think about this imminent death.

Never had he been so afraid of dying in his nine years of partnership with Danny as he had been for the rest of his life, including his years as a member of the Navy. Even with Freddie, it had never been as intense as with him, or with Catherine, or Joe. He was afraid not to die but to be separated forever from that friend who knew him even better than he did, never to see his expressions again, his outbursts of anger that amused him so much, his sarcasm. To die was a synonym of forgetting for all eternity. And as one last memory before he died, all he wanted was that smile that set him apart from the others around him. The one who put him in a good mood, who put him back on the right track. The one who erased all his doubts and fears. Healed him. His left hand still on his chest, his right hand eternally on his own, he did not let go as Steve's hand tried to escape him as he whispered his last words to him.

"Love you, buddy…"

One last whisper, one last sigh. One last look before Steve's faded away, his blue irises no longer within sight, this smile he had on his face turning into a firm, impassive face. A dead one.

* * *

 **A/N: So, what do you think so far, huh?**

 **I will probably add some * at some point to give you some clues of my theories about the show or to point out some relation with the actual show (at it is an original story, I have to take some points from the show, right?)**

 **Please, leave me a review to know what are your thoughts about this story (even when you know (kinda) how it will end ^^**


	2. You will pay

Hello people and happy new year!

So, this is a special day to me, because 12 years ago my own dad died from lung cancer (yes I was little) and seeing Steve in such a position on the show made me realize that he wasn't haring his emotion at all. When you lose your dad (or a paternal figure), you are a mess, you can't think straight, you're depressed and feels guilty. I didn't see that on Steve in the last episode (we all saw the 11th episode) and I think I wanted more of that aspect of him actually. But we just had this (SPOILER ALERT) expendable gathering team to find Joe's killer (and of course the one who was after Steve's SEALteam).

Anyway, as promised, here is a new chapter for this story and I think you will like some parts of it. Some things could be included in the show for sure and that's why I like writing this one. Because we all know that Danny would do everything in his power to make sure that Steve is alive, in good health and safe. And it applies for Steve to Danny. But imagine one second that Danny (or Steve) can't do anything but wait... Can't you see what will happen then? Yes, they'll turn crazy!

I hope you will like this chapter in that case!

Have a nice reading!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 2**

Danny stood there without a word, honoring an icy silence. His best friend, his brother had not yet died, he felt it through his hand on his chest. His last words were spinning in his head: Steve was sorry and loved him. It was no excuse for being shot or not waiting for backup since it was his idea and not the military's one. Why was he so sorry for? He couldn't understand. Was it because he felt that he could stay awake any longer, too weakened by the hemorrhage? _I love you._ He knew what that meant. It was one of their ways of thinking that they would be able to do anything for each other. A kind of inexplicable fraternal love they felt, a desire to protect the other at all costs.

"I love you too…", he managed to whisper despite his voice broken by the emotion that was hugging him.

He didn't want to give up on Steve, quite the contrary. He wanted to fight as he began to hear the ambulance and the sirens of a police patrol approaching. There was still life in him, so there was no chance of him giving in. He continued to press on his chest wound, his immaculate hand shaking at the same time as the heart he felt tapping on his fingers through his ribs. _Please let them arrive soon_ , he thought to himself as the heart beats became more and more difficult to perceive. To make sure he was still alive, he placed two of his fingers on his carotid artery, as he had done for the criminal he had just shot. He sighed, relieved: weak but present, his heartbeat seemed to be a lullaby from which he would not tire, at least for the time being. It meant that he could continue to fight for him, as he had always done.

As a police officer, he had to undergo several first aid training courses. He already knew more or less what to expect and what to do. First, check the victim's state of consciousness. Obviously, this was not necessary since he knew he was unconscious because of the significant blood loss. The second thing to do was to examine the patient to see if his heart was beating and if he was breathing. Although weak, it was still beating and he still had to see for his breathing. With his hand on his chest, it was already complicated to perceive a heartbeat, therefore an inspiration... While maintaining enough pressure to stop the bleeding as he could, he approached his right ear to Steve's face and opened his mouth with his free hand, after wiping his tears with the back of his palm. He concentrated, diverting most of his attention for this task. Weak and difficult, his breathing was present but laborious. Fortunately, the sirens of ambulances coupled with those of police cars were heard: backups were not far away.

"Danny!"

Surprised to hear his name so close to him, he jumped slightly and turned his head towards the female voice calling him. At the edge of Oahu's lush jungle, his partners in the special unit were on their way out. Lou and Junior held Amanu's arms firmly so that he would not escape while Tani led the troop to the exit. A time relieved to see that the chase was over, the three companions were quickly seized by worry when they saw Danny kneeling beside an agonizing and unconscious Steve, one of his hands deliberately placed on his chest and that they could all see bloody. More than this clue, his face marked by anguish and sadness set the tone; it was not good at all.

"Hey! Beala! You killed my little brother, you son of a bitch!" a deaf and angry voice then came to Danny's ears. "You'll regret this, believe me! I'm going to tear you to pieces!"

Struggling fiercely with Junior and Lou, the former NavySEAL did not hesitate for a second to tackle him on the ground and restrict his movements, at least until the Honolulu police took over. Meanwhile, without a hesitation, Tani Ray rushed to her two friends and mentors, distraught but ready to help Danny save Steve.

"How can I help?"

But nothing worked, the detective was in no way able to express his desires, his needs or to state any sentence. It was not a question of strength or will, it was simply impossible to distract him from his goal, that was to keep his brother alive while the help came to meet them. This was not long in coming, as the sirens were screaming louder and louder, resonating in the deserted street.

Powerless, Tani lowered her gaze: the grey asphalt was now covered with a thick layer of red growing in sight. She forced herself not to express her horror by pinching her lower lip, swallowing a rising nausea. She didn't know what to do because so intense was her anxiety. The noise of the sirens stopped; finally, police patrols and the ambulance had arrived on the scene. Officer Ray looked up, keeping her eyes locked on the two men who were running towards Danny, Steve and her, two big bags hanging on their shoulders.

"This way! Come on!" she shouted to show them the way, even if it was not necessary.

The first paramedic, the one who seemed to be in charge of the situation, knelt next to Detective Williams, who did not move an inch, still focused on his best friend.

"My name is Samuel O'Hara, and this is my colleague Dimitri Morgen. We're here to help you", he said to Danny, who wasn't really listening.

Finally, Danny jumped when he felt the ambulance driver's right hand on his shoulder without releasing the pressure he was putting on the injury.

"I need to see the extent of the injuries, sir..."

"Detective", Danny managed to whisper. "Detective Danny Williams. And this is my partner, Commander Steve McGarrett", he said, clearing his throat while keeping his voice shaky and panicked. "I can't take my hand off, he'll bleed to death."

"All right, here's what we're gonna do, Detective. You keep your hand on his wound for now, but we're gonna have to lay him down, okay?"

Taking a few seconds to think, Danny knew that it was protocol and that it was impossible to provide first aid in the position Steve was in, leaning against the car. Slowly, he nodded, ready to perform all the maneuvers necessary to keep his partner alive.

"You", Samuel ordered, pointing to Tani, "I'm going to need your help. We need to lay the Commander down while the detective keeps constant pressure on the wound. Do you understand?"

"Yes", the two officers confirmed in unison.

"All right. Stand to the detective's right side and pass your right hand behind the Commander's neck and your left hand over his shoulder blades. Detective, do you feel able to use your right free hand?"

"I, uh... I think so."

"In that case, put it in his lower back. We're going to make him slide, head towards you", he said to Tani.

The young recruit from 5-0 had the perfect maneuver they were going to perform in the head, but her boiling hands were shaking on her boss' icy skin. She quickly swallowed her saliva while waiting for the paramedic to start while Danny slipped his hand behind Steve's back.

"On three. One. Two. Three!"

In less than four seconds, Steve was now lying down, his back glued to the asphalt red with his own blood, Danny making a remarkable effort not to tremble while maintaining pressure on the wound.

"Morgen!" O'Hara screamed.

His colleague arrived near him as quickly as possible. He was a new paramedic, fresh out of his training class. Tani could see it because he didn't know what to do, paralyzed by the scene. Probably his first time out or his first intervention on a gunshot wound.

"Stethoscope. And monitor", he asked orally.

As Samuel began to listen to Steve's heart and breathing, Dimitri used the little space he had to place three electrodes on the soldier's chest; two below his clavicles and the third at his stomach, under his vest still in place. He then connected them to the monitor he was carrying in order to contemplate his vitals, O'Hara standing up at the same time.

"His heart rate is irregular and his breathing is apneic. Detective Williams, right?"

The latter nodded, still focused on his task.

"We're going to have to remove the Commander's bullet-proof vest. You have to stop pressing the wound for a few seconds. When I say so, you take your hand off and once the vest is removed, you can put it back on. My colleague will give you a gauze to help you, okay?"

Unable to say a word, Danny moved his head up and down once again and concentrated. With the help of his colleague and Tani, they unclipped the six closures, the Morgen taking a thick compress in hand so that the Detective could take it and continue his work.

"On the count of three, you take your hand off, I take off the front part. You rest your hand with the compress and we tilt the Commander to his left side for the back part. Morgen, take this time to see if there is an exit wound. If there is one, take a piece of gauze and apply it to the wound. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone agreed with the delicate manipulation and everyone set up.

"One. Two. Three!"

Very quickly, Danny took his hand off, afraid to see the blood flowing again from his wound. He then took the compress from Dimitri's hands while Samuel removed the front of the vest. In no time at all, his hand was back on the entry hole of the bullet. A few seconds passed, cradled by the monitor's incessant, arrhythmic and panicky beeps, before the second part of the operation was set in place.

"No exit wound."

"Damn, the bullet is still inside", O'Hara replied in a whisper. "Set up an IV while I intubate", he then ordered his teammate.

The paramedic in charge then positioned himself at the level of the Commander's head, tilting his head back to clear his airways and have a better view of his vocal cords. Delicately, he opened Steve's slightly bluish lips and inserted the laryngoscope. He grinned, moving the object from right to left.

"Damn it, I can't see the vocal cords. His trachea seems to have deviated", he explained to his colleague who was busy finding a vein on his right arm. "Officer... Rey", he could read on his own vest. "I still need you. Put your hands at the level of his Adam's apple and press lightly."

Worried but trusting the paramedic, she stepped forward and placed her hands on top of each other at Steve's neck, gradually pressing on the area he had asked for.

"Freeze!"

She froze, swallowing her saliva again and did not ask any questions. Quickly, Samuel took the endotracheal tube with his free hand and gently pushed it down his throat.

"You can stop now. Thank you."

As Tani removed her hands, the paramedic removed the stylet, the laryngoscope and replaced them with a blue plastic balloon.

"Officer, I'm going to need your help again. Come near me and take my place. You have to press this balloon once every two seconds, okay?"

"Okay", she said with a broken voice.

Repositioning his stethoscope, he had to check that the probe was in place before thinking about moving the Commander, otherwise, he could risk prolonged hypoxia, which almost inevitably led to brain death, from which no turning back was possible. Over his stomach, over both his lungs. He nodded as he frowned.

"There's no air going into his right lung."

"Pneumothorax?"

"If the bullet went through from left to right, it could have pierced the lung."

"Decompression kit?"

"No, we don't have time. He needs to go to the hospital and right away."

"Queen's?"

"This is the nearest hospital, yes. How long to get there?"

"From here, about ten minutes."

"Make it less than ten and I'll buy you dinner tonight."

"Sounds fine to me, I'll bring the stretcher."

As Dimitri was leaving for the vehicle, Samuel turned to Danny.

"Detective: for now, you need to keep your hand on the wound. Once at the hospital, a nurse will take over as soon as the stretcher gets out. Officer Rey, I'll take your place once the Commander is on the backboard. I'm sorry, but you can't ride with us."

She nodded weakly, understanding this logical decision while her two other colleagues, Junior and Lou, joined them.

"Duke has taken Amanu to headquarters and will handle the situation", Captain Grover explained to no one in particular. "How is Steve?"

"The Commander has lost a significant amount of blood and his heart is beginning to suffer the effects. If he is not in the hospital within the next ten minutes, we may not make it in time."

Faced with such sincerity, the two men looked into each other's eyes, worried about their boss. They then understood the seriousness of the situation; the soldier could lose his life at any moment.

"I'm going to lead the way", Lou explained as he began to head towards his vehicle.

"Danny, where are your keys? I take your car to the hospital", Junior asked then.

"Front right pocket", was all the policeman could say without losing his concentration.

Finding the keys in a very short time, Officer Reigns headed in the same direction as his colleague while Tani helped the two paramedics place Steve on the stretcher and then in the ambulance. She then joined her colleague and friend in Danny's car. Lou advanced his pickup truck and stood in front of the ambulance, activating the siren to give priority to the convoy. As requested by Samuel, Dimitri managed to reach Queen's hospital in less than ten minutes, and when the doors opened, the mobile bed was surrounded by two doctors and a nurse.

"What do we have?" one of the doctors asked.

"Forty-year-old police officer with a gunshot wound to the chest, no exit wound. No breathing in the right lung, irregular heart rate. The bullet must have passed close to the heart. Significant blood loss. Blood pressure at 78/48, we intubated on site without anesthesia. His trachea was deviated", Samuel O'Hara explained as the nurse laid her hand on Danny's to replace him.

"How much blood loss?"

"At least two to three liters."

"Understood. We're taking him into the shock room. Come on, let's go!"

Danny knew he couldn't go with them and it broke his heart. He did not want to leave Steve under any circumstances, for fear that this would be the last time he would ever see him alive. Instinctively, he put both his hands through his hair, completely forgetting that they were covered with his brother's blood. He was angry. Joined by his three colleagues, he turned around and passed in front of them without saying a word. After the entrance porch, he started running, wishing to be far from all this. He ran across the street. He knew where to go, he knew the place like the back of his hand. Not far from the hospital was the headquarters of the 5-0 Special Task Force and the Honolulu Police Department. He clenched his fists, preventing his anger from coming out of his mouth or body, at least until he get where he wanted to be. Without a word, he passed in front of the reception, the office door and took the stairs down to the basement followed insight by Duke Lukela and Jerry Ortega. The sergeant knew exactly what Danny wanted to do, and he was very concerned about it. Trying to catch him before he made a mistake, he rushed down the stairs and went down in turn. Danny's face was full of anger and hatred when he opened the door to the interrogation room and found himself in front of Amanu Keola, handcuffed to the chair he was sitting on. Without thinking, he approached the criminal and drew his service weapon, pointing the end of his gun at his forehead. Not a tremor, not a regret. He had made up his mind.

"Danny, stop!" a loud voice then resounded in the empty room. "You can't do that!"

"Steve is in a life and death situation because of his fucking brother! I don't care what I have the right to do or not!"

"Steve wouldn't have wanted you to do what you're about to do!"

When Danny thought about it, he noticed that Duke was right. His partner always managed to physically and mentally hurt or torture his suspects, but under no circumstances had he caused the death of any of them so far. Taking a lot on him, Danny lowered his gun and put it back in its place, the last words Steve had spoken reasoning in his head.

"Chicken", Amaru snickered at him as the detective turned around to leave the room.

That was too much. Danny turned around again, drawing his weapon a second time. Without an ounce of hesitation, he struck him with a violent buttock to his head, causing the criminal to wobble slightly on his chair. With the barrel of the gun pointed at his legs, going deep into his flesh. He cried out in pain, cursing silently while the policeman held back as best he could while Duke did not move, confident that Danny would never jump this course.

"I warn you", he began in his deepest and most hateful voice, "If my brother dies, I'll save this bullet for you. But before you deserve it, I'll take care of you. I will subject you to the most vile and cruel punishment, and I will take such great pleasure in it that at some point you will beg me to end your life. Have I made myself clear?"

Before even receiving an answer, Danny left the room, Sergeant Lukela standing in front of the door wide open.

"He has no right to do that, does he?" Amanu asked the policeman very seriously, the fear being read on his face.

"No, but he will not hesitate to break this rule if Commander McGarrett dies. And no one here will stop him. After all, there are no cameras down here. You can't know what's going on inside this room unless you're there yourself", he explained very seriously before closing the door behind him.

The sergeant tried to chase the detective but he was much younger, athletic and above all, adrenaline was still running into his veins. Add to that the anger, the fear of losing his colleague and best friend and he was faced with a man who was unable to feel tired or to know his own limits.

As he came out of the stairwell, he could guess that Danny had already been there: the wall was smashed in and even fresh blood was dripping from the gaping hole in the middle. He had expressed his anger as he could, failing to kill Keola's older brother. Duke turned his head towards a scared Jerry, or at least not understanding the situation.

"Beala Keola, Amanu's younger brother, shot Steve and seriously injured him", the police officer then confessed to clarify the situation.

Fear quickly turned into worry on the technician's face. Almost instantly, he understood Danny's more than improbable behavior.

"Is he all right?" he tried to ask with his broken voice while knowing more or less the answer.

Duke could only shake his head negatively, because he himself knew nothing about the situation. He just guessed that given Danny's behavior, what he had just done, it must be really very serious.

* * *

Junior, Tani and Lou were also worried about Danny's sudden disappearance, especially knowing full well that he would never want to leave the hospital to be with Steve at any time. But now, ten minutes after his departure, still no sign of him, no Detective Williams at all.

While waiting for him to come back, Lou asked the nurse in the admissions office about Steve, even harassing her, in vain so far. The usual excuses such as 'we can't tell you anything until the doctor arrives' or 'sorry but I don't know anything' made him uncomfortable, angry and especially did not reassure him. The emergency area was under high tension anyway and the remaining three members of the 5-0 were trying to find an effective way to keep from going in circles. Without much success since their arrival.

Finally, after another fifteen minutes of waiting, to their great relief, they were joined by Danny. Lou quickly detected that his colleague was holding back a cry of pain; he had his features drawn, not from fatigue or sadness but as if he was physically injured too. Lowering his eyes, he noticed the scattered drops of blood on his way to them. Short of breath, sweat dripping on his face, he didn't need any more to guess what he had just done. These images haunted him for a few seconds before coming to his senses and welcoming him with a firm face.

"Any news from Steve?" Danny asked between two short breaths, his face impassive.

"Still nothing but it should come soon", Junior tried to reassure. "What did you do with your hand?"

Maybe he shouldn't have asked, but the blood coming out of his hand didn't bode well.

"Duke stopped me from putting a bullet between his eyes", Danny explained, talking about Amanu. "So I gave him another correction. And I might have broken a thing or two", he says innocently.

Tani and Lou gave a slight grin while Junior seemed somewhat shocked by the situation.

"You should get your hand fixed, Danny. Maybe you broke something", he confessed, worried, as he took it to check the extent of the damage.

Very quickly, Danny refused any care, removing his hand while suffocating a scream of agony and clenching his teeth.

"We'll see after we hear from Steve. Not before, understand?"

After swallowing his saliva and overcoming the shock of the black words spoken by his superior, Officer Reigns nodded and resigned himself. Never had he suffered such a difficult situation, but his years of training and operations in a very hostile environment, when they were not war environments, had forged him into showing nothing.

Almost at the same time, a doctor came out of the room Steve was currently in, accompanied by two other white coats. Slowly, with their eyes down, they walked towards the four friends while they did not move an inch, terrified by these tired, impassive and potentially carrying bad news face.

"How is Steve?" Danny managed to pronounce when the doctors had joined them.

The oldest of the three, Dr. Yen, began to sigh at length before starting his speech.

"I'm not going to lie to you: Commander McGarrett is in a very delicate position."

These few words, of rare violence from a medical staff member, were more than enough to understand that the situation was more than delicate. A slight silence set in, reviving Danny's anger, who clenched his fists without taking into account the throbbing pain in his right hand.

"I assume that the weapon used had a twisted barrel, which increased the bullet's velocity and allowed it to pass through the bullet-proof vest", Dr. Yen continued as he saw the impatience of his interlocutors. "It also crossed and destroyed his sternum and apparently it is apparently lodged in his right lung, nicking the pulmonary artery on its way."

"Apparently?" Lou said, surprised. "What, you're not even sure about that? You have x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans or MRIs, I don't understand."

"With a metallic foreign body still in place in his body, a CT and an MRI are excluded. And the bullet would light up like a Christmas tree and make the ultrasound unusable. X-rays can only be used for orientation and unfortunately, they cannot provide all the information."

"Not to mention the other metal shards", Danny responded to everyone's surprise.

Without further ado, the doctor nodded, surprised that a civilian would know of a SEAL's troubled and classified past.

"We're going to have to operate blind, not knowing what to expect. We just know what I told you just now. It's going to be tricky because of the medications he takes every day though."

'What do you mean by that?" Junior asked then.

"His daily anti-rejection treatment for his liver transplant weakened his immune system. Add to that the radiation poisoning he has and it complicates things even more", the youngest doctor explained calmly. "Within twenty minutes, he developed a slight fever and his white blood cell count increased gradually, indicating that his body is fighting some kind of infection, probably from the bullet still lodged in his chest."

"Wait", Danny alerted everyone, who then froze. "You mean that... That Steve can die on the operating table?"

A new silence set in, heavier than the previous one, none of the three doctors wanting to bring the bad news.

"Blind surgery, as we are about to do, is very risky because you never know in advance what to expect. His body is very weak and he has already lost a very large amount of blood", Dr. Yen said then. "We will do everything we can to ensure that the operation is not fatal to him."

The world collapsed around Danny: Steve might not survive and his last words haunted him. Apart from these words he had spoken to keep him alive, his last action had been to let his best friend go face a high danger without him at his side and without any backup. At that moment, Danny thought he should never have left Steve alone because now, if he died, he would feel like he had killed him himself.

* * *

 **A/N: So, what do you think so far? Should I give you more details? Fewer details? Other scenes or anything else? A special dialogue? special words?**

 **Please, let me know your thoughts and expectations in a review ^^**

 **And see you next week for the next chapter**


	3. Alone

Hello dear followers! Thank you for all your reviews, it melts my heart! I didn't know this was a story you could all like actually :p

SO, I am glad to give you another chapter of this story. This is probably one of the hardest I have to write so far (yes yes).

And I won't give any spoilers from the show or from the story I am writing because apparently, some people still didn't see the ninth season (too bad, you're missing something :P)

Anyway, I hope you will like this chapter (again) and that you will leave as many reviews as I had so far because honestly, it's a good way to give inspiration/smile to the writers ^_^

Have a good time reading these few lines!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 3**

After the three doctors left, the atmosphere in the emergency room became tenser. None of the members of 5-0 dared to speak to Danny for fear of triggering his anger, let alone Junior and Tani, who did not know how their colleagues would react. He had refused any medical care before he knew that Steve was out of danger, which was only a slim hope for the time being.

"You really should have your hand checked at, Danny", Lou finally broke the leaden silence.

Just this sentence unleashed immeasurable anger in him. He wanted to stay in his world for fear of regretting certain gestures or words, so he suddenly got up and pushed Lou with all his might before leaving for the men's room. Junior was ready to join him when he noticed his colleague's inaction, before being arrested by the latter.

"You'd only make things worse. He needs to be alone for the moment."

Tani was distraught, she felt helpless in the face of this situation, which she hardly understood. Certainly, there had been this crisis to manage during the quarantine in the previous year, but it was nothing compared to what was going on now. A hell from which she could not escape.

"This is the first time I've seen Danny in such a state", she confessed, her voice broken and on the verge of tears.

"This is the first time Steve has been seriously injured since you arrived", Lou quickly corrected. "I am the first failing to understand how deep their friendship is. But I do know one thing: if one of them is hurt, you can be sure that the other will do everything to save the other and avenge him."

"And Danny can't do anything right now", Junior quickly noticed. "He can't kill Beala because he's already dead, he can't put a bullet in Amanu's head and he can't rescue Steve, he can't help him or be close to him."

"Exactly", Lou confirmed. "He's a lion in a cage until the surgery is over. That's why it's best to leave Danny alone until he calms down. You could find yourself between two chairs", the captain added.

The two young police officers nodded without a word, trying to deal with the situation in their own way.

* * *

Danny, on the other hand, was on the verge of hyperventilation. His jerky breathing was no longer enough to adequately supply his body with oxygen, he felt his whole body shaking; his jelly legs ready to give in, his sore and bloody hands blurred as waves of emotion seized him. His stomach just turned over and over again, sniffing the smell of Steve's blood on his hands, his heart pounded, slapping dangerously on his ribs.

He felt like he was going back with that bad moment again two years ago, when Steve had taken three bullets from a gun in his body on that damn plane. The image of that pool of blood under his seat always haunted him after all that time, that moment when he understood that he would have to fly this CESNA and land it to save him without having a single notion of flight or piloting. The words of this doctor who told him that without a liver transplant, Steve would die resonated in his head.

That day, he was able to do something in order to save him, but today he was powerless and had to wait for the storm to pass and pray for the best in the operating room. Haunted by Steve's blood, he turned on the tap and put his hands under the icy water to erase the traces of the carnage he had witnessed not even an hour earlier. He clenched his teeth by running his fingers over his right hand. The wounds were no longer bleeding but he could see through the dried blood that the whole area was blue and swollen, irrefutable proof that something was wrong. It did not stop, however. He could no longer bear the horror vision in which he put one of his hands on Steve's wound, hoping to stop the bleeding at least until help arrived.

He could no longer hear those last three words he had spoken before succumbing to darkness. Eyes blurred by the rising tears, the emotion winning, he kept rubbing, over and over again, even after totally cleaning his hands. It took him at least five minutes to realize that he had kept his bullet-proof vest, also immaculate with Steve's blood. As quickly as he could, he undid his jacket and dropped it to the ground as he looked in the mirror.

All he saw was red; his clothes, his face. Even his pants had a hole on it because of his voluntary fall to reach his brother on the ground. In an emergency, he got rid of his clothes one by one: his shirt, his pants. He even took off his shoes and socks, leaving only his underwear on him. Quickly, he regained a semblance of calm.

Exhausted, bruised, wounded, he backed away until he leaned against one of the toilet walls and let himself slide on the tiled floor. He then swallowed his head into his knees, wrapping his arms around his legs to create a cocoon in which he could eventually feel safe and release all the emotions that were currently in his body. Eventually, he entered into his world, he didn't even care about the people who had entered the room to urinate or quench their thirst.

* * *

In the waiting room, Lou was worried about the fact that he still hadn't seen Danny come back to them. Of course, there were hours of surgery ahead of them but for nothing in the world he could have left them like that. This disturbed even Junior and Tani who, despite their colleague's explanations, still did not understand how their extraordinary friendship worked.

"When they met the first time, Steve was trying to find his father's killer and Danny was in charge of the investigation", Lou began, hoping to clarify some points. "The 5-0 Task Force was then created on the initiative of the Governor at the time and their friendship was born. According to Danny, and I quote, Steve was a Neanderthal animal who understood nothing at all about social subtleties. But despite their total opposition, they were complementary and understood each other without a word. Danny's academic style coupled with Steve's military style has done and still does so much damage, to the point that now, when the bad guys know that 5-0 is involved in their business, what happened today is what happens."

It wasn't necessarily the best explanation to offer, but it was all he knew about the beginnings of their unit. The starting four officers running the Task Force had always remained been very evasive about this for countless reasons, but it was above all a pact between them. Even Jerry had no way of finding any clues, any information about the beginnings of the elite unit. Lou had even asked the Governor for access to the reports between 2010 and 2013, but to no avail.

"What about his mother? I mean... His father was killed if I understood correctly but his mother is still alive, right?"

"McGarrett has a very complicated relationship with his mother and it's not for me to explain all this to you."

In front of such coldness, Junior and Tani didn't insist, intrigued by a noise from the toilets Danny had taken refuge in. Two nurses had entered the room with a wardrobe in one person's hands and a first aid kit in the other's arms. Maybe the detective had finally agreed to be treated?

Lou then took a few steps to find himself at the front door that was open. One of the nurses named Lorenzo was helping Danny get into clothes not totally his size but warmer than his underwear while the other, Machael, was preparing a gauze soaked with antiseptic cleanser to wash his right hand. The captain thought that the maneuver would disturb Danny, but on the contrary, he let it happen, obviously exhausted by the atrocious last hour he had just experienced. He wasn't totally the detective he knew until now, but given the situation, he understood perfectly well that he was washed away. A physical shock was difficult to deal with, but such an intense emotional shock could totally put a man or woman out of the picture, even the most trained ones. Another surprise for Lou, Danny agreed without hesitation to have his hand treated despite his promise not to let any member of the hospital approach him until Steve's surgery was over.

Not without difficulty because of his jelly legs, the detective got up, supported by the two nurses who came to his rescue while the rest of his team remained in retreat, amazed by the scene unfolding before their eyes. Nevertheless, they followed the trio into the staff rest room, where they placed the policeman on the couch and laid him down while a doctor on is lunch break examined his bruised right hand.

"It doesn't look broken to me, but it will hurt for a while", he reassured everyone as he carefully bandaged the injured area.

Danny didn't retaliate, keeping that empty look that had been on his face for at least ten minutes. Turning his eyes away from Lou, Dr. Malaka asked him the causes of his amorphous state. The captain explained the situation to him as best he could, shocking the hospital staff in the room.

"If we had to create a loyalty card for hospitalization, I think the commander would be the big winner", the doctor tried to ironicize in order to lighten the atmosphere.

It didn't make anyone laugh, but he was right, which Junior and Tani didn't know about. Danny's fatigue was over after a few minutes lying totally on the couch and, very quickly, he fell asleep despite a fierce struggle not to close his eyes.

"The emotional shock he just received has completely exhausted him. He may sleep for several hours", Dr. Malaka said. "Stay here for as long as it takes, I'll tell the surgeon to meet you here after the surgery."

"Thank you", Lou said with the support of Junior and Tani.

It was only when the door was closed that the three colleagues allowed themselves to collapse into a chair with a sigh. No one except Danny and Steve knew what had happened, the cause of the incident remaining an unresolved mystery at the moment.

"I still can't understand how the bullet got through the vest", the young recruit confessed. "He should have stopped it, right?"

"If the bullet was fired from a twisted and modified barrel to increase speed and velocity, it can pass through a vest without any problem", Junior explained. "I've seen this before in Afghanistan. The Taliban had modified their weapons to increase the range, speed and velocity of the bullets coming out of their guns. They were doing enormous damage then."

"The vest slowed the bullet but unfortunately not enough to stop most of the damage", Tani continued. "I can't even imagine what's going on in Danny's head right now."

"We can't."

The two friends turned to Lou, intrigued.

"We can't know what's going on there. I've already experienced this waiting with Steve seriously injured once, and I was... I was lucky, if you could call it luck, not to have to watch Danny while the surgeon was trying to save his life, because he was his donor, so he was with him."

"What happened that day? Because I tried to find the report, and it was impossible."

Lou straightened up, ready to discuss it with Junior and Tani while taking great care to keep an eye on Danny.

"Nahele contacted Steve because one of his friends had died of a drug overdose, one that was starting to circulate in the streets of Honolulu. He promised to stop the traffic and put the people responsible for this behind bars."

He took a deep breath again, trying not to miss any details in this story. Looking at the two young people, he noticed their concentrated looks, as if they were listening carefully to his story.

"They managed to trace the drugs back to the driver, and they forced him to be... Unavailable for the next transport, and to present him and Danny to his passenger. Then it went very fast, actually. Steve was supposed to fly the plane, Danny assisted him while the guy was handling the drugs, but they were attacked on the way and Steve took three bullets in the body; one in the arm, and two in the abdomen, one of which lodged in his liver and destroyed it. He almost bled to death in the plane and Danny had to give up their cover to fly the plane, land it without fuel on one of the beaches and allow the rescue team to come for Steve."

Tani swallowed her saliva nervously, tears coming to her eyes to run down her cheeks but she held them back, for fear of showing too many emotions right away. She knew that the story was not over and above all, Steve was still in a very critical state.

"We got the delivery guy talking and made a raid during which Danny spotted the guy who shot them. He was ready to put a bullet between his eyes when the hospital called him to get us back. And that's when we were told that one of the bullets destroyed his liver. We all volunteered to do this transplant without hesitation, but Danny shares the same blood type and rhesus, so instead of wasting time determining the compatibility rate, he stuck to it."

"It must have been hard to live with", Junior noted.

"Very hard", Lou said, smiling slightly after a few seconds. "When I first met Steve, I was the head of SWAT here and I didn't get along with him very well. It was an out-of-competition pain in the ass. I remember that once, we had to team up to arrest a suspect and he was shot in the arm. I made him a spice-based cocktail to stop the bleeding."

"You didn't do that, did you?" Tani asked, surprised and amused.

"The Hell I did! And the worst part was that he didn't even blink and then, since we didn't have a car because ours was out, we used horses. We continued not to support each other for a while and when everything went wrong for me... He was there. He gave me my plate when I was forced to withdraw from SWAT. He trusted me and rejected his aversion to me in order to give me this opportunity. That's when I changed my mind about Steve. I no longer saw him as a guy who breaks everything in his path but as a straightforward man, honest, proud to be a soldier and above all who does everything possible to preserve the safety of the island and its inhabitants."

Stunned by so much truth, Tani and Junior were speechless, no words seemed to reach their lips, so improbable but true.

"He's still a guy who breaks everything in his path."

Surprised by this voice coming from nowhere, they jumped and turned to the source of this almost clattered sound of sadness and pain. Against all odds, Danny was awake and his eyes were focused on the group.

"We woke you up, I'm sorry."

"No. No, you didn't wake me up", he reassured me by standing up on the couch while paying attention to his hand. "I'm just exhausted", he confessed.

"It's the adrenaline wearing off your system. Such a shock must have boosted your body and it is starting to dissipate."

"How is Steve?"

"We don't know. The operation started about an hour ago. It should take a few more hours."

He said nothing in return but nodded weakly as he closed his eyes.

"I'm going to have to call Mary. And Rachel. I was supposed to take Grace and Charlie for the weekend."

"Mary? Who is Mary?" Tani was surprised because she did not know this person.

"Mary-Ann is probably the only family Steve still has and with whom he stays in touch. I promised to call her if anything happened to him."

"We're gonna leave you alone for a while, okay?"

"Thank you."

Without further words, the three colleagues left the room to take a short break in the cafeteria while Danny called Rachel and Mary to update them on the situation. Since he had just lost his clothes, he didn't know where his phone was. Quickly, he discreetly exited the break room and went through the nurses' office to ask for his Grail.

"You are feeling better, sir?"

He turned to that male voice and came face to face with the nurse. He recognized one of the two who had helped him in the toilet despite his catatonic and pitiful condition.

"Uh... Danny. Williams. Sorry... Lerenzo", he could read on his badge stuck to his chest. "For, uh... You know."

Obviously embarrassed by the situation, the young nurse smiled.

"It's nothing. You're going through a difficult time, and we're used to this kind of... Trouble", he said, getting a little closer to him. "Are you feeling better?"

"No", he's telling the truth. "I'll feel better when Steve is out of surgery and I'm told he's out of the woods."

"I understand. I will pray with all my heart that this will happen. By the way, are you looking for something? Or someone?"

"Uh, yes. I'm looking for my phone. I have to call some important people."

"I understand. Sarah?" he then called one of the nurses.

One of them turned to listen to her name, a pretty redhead with cheekbones and freckles.

"Yes?"

"You wouldn't have put aside the phone from the stuff I gave you about... Thirty minutes ago?" he asked looking at his watch to find out the time.

"Oh, yes. It rang several times since then. I'll go get it."

She then left, leaving the two men standing in front of the office.

"Uh... The... The doctor who treated me. He seemed to know Steve."

"Your friend? If I followed the story, they were overseas together. Unfortunately, I don't know any more, but from what I understand, at the time he was used to injuries and hospitals."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Daredevil as he is. He's not a man, he's an animal."

"It's weird, most military personnel converted to civilian life are called the same because of their... How can I say..."

"Their Neanderthal Habits?"

"That's right. We have a few specimens here at Queen's, but it seems it's even worse at Tripler's."

The two men laughed without realizing it as the young woman came back with Danny's phone in her hand. And other stuff.

"I also have your belongings and those of your friend. I thought you'd want everything back."

Observing the cardboard she had in her hands, painful memories invaded him again. He smiled falsely, taking all the stuff into his own hands and leaving as quickly as he could to return to the break room. He didn't have the heart to open the box at all because he knew what was in it. Blood-stained stuff, a terrible smell he couldn't stand and Steve's personal stuff as well as his own. For now, the most important thing to do was to call his brother's family. Luckily, he had Mary's phone number in his phone, in case of an emergency if something happened to his brother.

When he unlocked the screen, he noticed that the Governor of Hawaii, Keika Mahoe, had tried several times to reach him, in vain since there had been all this story. He pressed the callback button and put his phone on his ear while waiting for someone to pick up the phone at the other end of the line.

"Governor Mahoe's Secretariat, how can I help you?"

"This is Detective Danny Williams. The Governor tried to call me several times."

"I'll put her on right away, Detective."

He waited a few more seconds, satisfied that he had kept control of his emotions so far.

"Detective Williams, I'm glad to finally have you on the phone. I tried to contact Commander McGarrett, but he's not responding either. I was expecting him in my office an hour ago", she commented coldly, eager to get a plausible answer.

"Yes, uh... we had a problem with a suspect", he explained without going into detail because he felt that his own impatience and anger was coming back into him.

"I see. A serious problem I hope, because he could have called to postpone our appointment, it wouldn't have been a problem for me."

"A shooting-like problem and Steve right now fighting for his life, is that serious enough to you?"

Immediately, he regretted letting these words escape and pinched his lower lip while closing his eyes and mentally insulting himself.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have spoken to you like that, Governor", he apologized almost immediately.

Her caller didn't know what to say, actually. She could never have imagined that their common smuggling case would take such a dramatic turn.

"What happened?" she then asked in an almost erased voice.

"Uh... We were chasing one of the suspects and he opened fire on Steve. He's in surgery right now, but I don't really know much more. The surgeon seemed worried."

"I now understand the lack of response on the phone. You'll keep me informed, Detective?"

"Will do. And uh... Sorry again for talking to you like that."

"It's all right, Detective, I assure you. You are not in your normal state and I fully understand that. Detective."

She then hung up and Danny collapsed on the couch, ashamed that he had had such violent words about her but relieved that he had finished the conversation that had made him uncomfortable. To recover, he decided to take a break to regain control of his breathing and explosive temperament before dialing Steve's little sister. Remembering the two-hour time difference between Honolulu and Los Angeles, he looked at his watch; it was one in the afternoon where Mary was. He sighed again and put the phone in his ear.

"Hey, hey Danny! Steve's still pouting at me?"

Remembering his last visit to the McGarrett house, he smiled as he looks back at Steve's face as he looked at his sister with a huge gift for his older brother's birthday. Inside, it had been just a tangle of boxes of all kinds meticulously placed in gift wrap, only to reveal a box of chocolate that Steve would never eat because he hated eating chocolate. She thought it was funny and so did Danny, but not him. Since then, he refused to talk to his sister, as if he was making a whim and this amused the two friends greatly.

"Uh... I don't know, I think so. Uh..."

Feeling the hesitation in the tone used by the detective, she understood almost immediately that something was wrong.

"Danny, are you all right?"

"Sorry", he said, sighing and whispering, letting a few more tears flow without controlling what was going on.

Again, Mary could guess that Steve had had a problem. Call it brotherly instinct, whatever, but she knew.

"Something bad happened to Steve, didn't it?"

No words could come out of Danny's throat and his whole body was shaking with sadness and anger. Not that Mary made him angry, but he didn't know what to say to her and he was more angry at himself than anything else.

"Uh... We were chasing a suspect, and uh... He shot him."

"I guess... This is serious," she replied after a few seconds of silence.

"The doctors don't know if he's going to make it", he admitted, ashamed. "I'm sorry Mary, I wasn't there and..."

"Oah, oah, wait a minute. What do you mean by that, Danny?"

"We split up and... And he got shot. If I had been there, I..."

"There was nothing you could have done, Danny", she quickly cut off the policeman who was lamenting and feeling guilty. "Look, uh... I'm scheduled to fly to Honolulu in about an hour. I'll explain to my boss that I can go but not back, okay? I'll be there in... About seven hours?"

"All right. I'll call you if we have any news by then, okay?"

"Send me a message instead, since I'll be in the air. Thank you for the warning, Danny."

"I will. See you later."

He hung up and took a well-deserved second break. He was terribly upset that he left Steve in such a situation, one that could ultimately be fatal to him. He should have insisted about Steve slowing down to stay together, even if it meant losing sight of Beala Keola and letting him run away. Maybe it could have saved his life. Instead, he lamented and whipped himself mentally for his inaction. He should have gone faster to follow his brother, he should have hurt himself to ensure his safety and instead? He stayed a little further back because he felt that he was getting old and that he no longer had his twenty-year-old legs. His knees hurt as soon as he started running, his breath started to get lost despite hours of weekly training. He was no longer suited to chasing a suspect, let alone McGarrett, whom he thought was high, as he ran both fast and efficiently, without losing his breath or speed even after several minutes.

And yet, he was sick in the long term and was taking medication to try to survive longer despite a battle he might lose. All this for nothing until now because he was between life and death on an operating table with a surgeon who was not necessarily optimistic about his chances of survival. He shook his head, desperately trying to drive away that negativity that was so lacking in him, something that his colleagues often blamed him for. He had to keep positive thoughts but he couldn't. With a long sigh of demoralization, he dialed his ex-wife's number and pressed the call button before putting his device on his ear.

"Good afternoon, Daniel", a female voice began with a British accent. "What can I do for you?"

And that was the black hole. Danny was unable to say a word, lost. He had already done it twice with the Governor and Mary, so why was it a problem with Rachel?

"Daniel? Are you there?"

"Yes, yes. Uh, sorry, I..."

"You look flushed, are you all right?"

Feeling that the mother of his two children was starting to panic at the other end of the phone, he pulled himself together very quickly and answered her almost instantly.

"Don't worry about me, uh... Can you do me a favor, Rachel, please?"

"Don't tell me you can't take Grace and Charlie this weekend because of a case! You promised them you weren't going to have a case!"

"I don't really have a case in progress, Rachel. It's just not the right time to take them, that's all", he tried to explain to his ex-wife.

"Not a good time, huh? And can I ask you why this is not a good time to see your children? Huh?"

A deathly silence settled and Danny didn't know what to say or do. He was totally torn between wanting to see his children and his unwavering friendship with Steve. He sighed for a long time, closing his eyes during the process and decided to tell Rachel everything.

"Steve got shot", he confessed.

"Oh, my God! Is he all right?"

"Uh... Doctors are not really optimistic. He has lost a lot of blood and the medication he is taking has weakened his... His body and... They don't know if he will survive the operation."

Danny felt himself leaving in extreme emotion, tears coming down his cheeks without controlling them. He had never felt so weak, helpless and helpless.

"I don't know what to do, Rachel", he sighed, at the edge of the roll.

Hearing his complaint on the other end of the phone, Rachel was in pain for her ex-husband, the one she still loved deep inside her, but she couldn't bear the burden of being a policeman's wife. She couldn't bring herself to wait for him to return or to fear a call telling her that Danny had just died because of the bad guys. It was beyond her strength, much more powerful now than her love for him. She sighed in turn, fully understanding why he couldn't take their children for the weekend. He couldn't take full care of them because of what had just happened.

"I'll take care of Grace and Charlie, okay? And you're giving me news about Steve's condition, right?"

"Will do. Thank you, Rachel. I'm sorry", he threw at her, depressed.

"It's not your fault, Daniel. You'll get them next time. Hang in there, Steve's gonna be fine. He always gets away with it."

Rebooted by these last words, he thanked Rachel again and hung up. Steve could only get away with it. He was going to fight to the end. He had to get out of it.

* * *

At the other end of the hospital, Dr. Yen and his interns, Drs. O'Connor and Tram, assisted by OR nurses and the anesthesiologist, had been fighting for a few hours to save their patient's life. As the incumbent had feared, his rib cage was indeed in pieces. The high velocity of the bullet and its speed, although somewhat slowed down by the bullet-proof vest, had caused many damages, not visible through the x-rays they had taken. His sternum had broken into several pieces because of the bullet that had passed through it. It had then continued its journey by tearing many muscles before passing through his right lung and lodging at the level of his shoulder blade, cracking it on impact and partially tearing off his pulmonary artery. This was what caused the massive bleeding in his rib cage and made his condition very unstable. Despite everything, Steve was holding up so far: his vitals were weak, his heart close to bradycardia and his blood pressure near the lower limit, but he was hanging in there, as if he had a goal he hadn't yet reached.

Dr. Yen was performing the final repairs on his pulmonary artery, the last step before the surgery was completed. After that, he still had to remove the clamp blocking this large blood vessel and see if the repairs were holding up. This was the most complex and dangerous part of this surgical procedure because the survival of his patient, whom he knew well, depended totally on it.

"Dr. Tram, you're going to remove the clamp slowly. We'll see if the stent will hold."

The young resident nodded and took the object in hand, allowing the blood flow to flow back to the part damaged by the bullet. He observed the area carefully, trying to spot any malfunction, but after a minute he saw nothing.

"I don't detect any anomalies", he said then.

A great relief invades the operating room, all the staff relieving themselves of all the stress accumulated by these few endless hours in the OR. Apparently, this simple final action had allowed Steve's heart to gain strength, and his body was gradually coming back to life. His heart rate was increasing and so was his blood pressure. These were not yet optimal vital signs but they were still a good start.

"Let's close him up now", Dr. Yen then ordered with a smile. "You all did a good job, congratulations!"

As usual with this surgeon, the OR nurses began to applaud. It was their reward for doing this remarkable work for hours, when they could save a life. But after thirty seconds, this clapping noise was interrupted by an intense sound signal very close to them. As if...

"Dr. Yen, our patient is crashing!"

The clear and frank smile of the medical staff dissipated, leaving room for an unmistakable and real concern. Resuming his mind, the surgeon plunged his hands back into the soldier's rib cage, searching in vain for any weakness.

"I don't feel anything, he's not bleeding, there's nothing wrong! Then why is his heart on the verge of V-tac and his blood pressure is dropping again?"

He didn't understand it, but one thing was certain: if he didn't find the source of the problem, Steve would quickly become an impossible man to save.

* * *

 **A/N:** **I hope you liked the chapter! The next one will be a bit complicated to follow but it's a good one for sure. You'll see when it'll come to next Saturday :P**

 **See you next week, fellas!**


	4. A choice to make

Hello dear friends! I know, I am late for the update but I have my reasons. I celebrated my 24th birthday this Friday and my computer decided to give me an awful gift: restoring entirely my computer! I lost everything I had on it (fortunately, I had registered my fanfiction work on a USB Disk too). Had to install many things back again, including my applications and all, so it took the whole Saturday and part of Sunday to do it (yes yes yes).

SO, now that I have finished all that, I can give you this chapter 4 you are waiting (of course), and I hope you will like it ^^

* * *

 **CHAPTER 4**

Steve's heart rate continued to rise without apparent reason, leaving all the medical staff in the room almost speechless.

"BP is still dropping, O2 sats at 75%", the anaesthesiologist announced, breaking the silence only cut from time to time by this sound signal always more intense than previously.

"I don't understand", Dr. Yen admitted. "We stopped the massive bleeding and placed a stent which is holding on so far, we repaired his collapsed lung and we glued all the pieces of the sternum together with bone cement, we left no piece inside, I don't see any bleeding and yet, his body is reacting as if it remains a bleeding somewhere. It doesn't make sense!"

He sighed deeply, dropping the instrument he had in hand. He needed to think. He had little time to figure out a diagnostic that could fit all the symptoms without using any scans, MRI or ultrasound, unauthorized in an operating room.

"Alright, let's retrace the bullet's path, shall we?" he asked his two students, not taking care of the alarm still screaming next to him.

"The bullet arrived with high velocity and speed right there, at the level of his sternum. It shattered it in couple pieces while continuing its path", one of the two explained, showing the wound. "It then passed near his heart before entering his right lung, going out by nicking the pulmonary artery. It stopped its course in his scapula, cracking it with the impact."

"We just got the clamp out of the pulmonary artery in order to restore the blood flow inside his right lung", the second student continued, "and we repaired the sternum. I don't see any apparent bleeding around the site where the bullet has been removed or in his chest."

In his head, Dr. Yen continued to think about the stated facts in order to find where the problem was while Steve's heart was on the edge of breaking down. With his eyes, he did the bullet's journey once again; only one logical explanation came to his mind, fitting all the symptoms. And it scared him.

"Dear Lord. I need a scalpel and a Kelly clamp. And give Kevin a sponge. David, get ready with the suction", he ordered firmly, advancing his hand towards the nurses taking care of all the material needed for the surgery.

"Doctor? Did you figure this out?"

"You said it yourself: the bullet passed near his heart and there is no apparent bleeding", he started using his scissors to make the first cut into the flesh. "His pericardium has surely not handled the high velocity of the bullet very well."

Indeed, cardiac muscles were highly sensitive with any change and they were very easy to irritate. Seeing what their attending talked about, the two young surgeons looked each other, stunned.

"He's bleeding from the inside", the youngest stated.

"Pericardial tamponade", the other diagnosed for all the staff.

* * *

At the same time, Steve didn't understand anything. He was there, amongst the nurses, as if he was out of his own body. He frowned, trying to think, in vain. Was he dying while the surgeons were trying to save his life? What about Danny? Was he worried about him? Was he out of his mind too? Was he feeling guilty about what happened while he was agonizing on this icy operating table? He could never blame his best friend, never ever. Even with him asking to go upfront, he had made the decision to do so while they could have stayed together, maybe allow Beala to escape. After all, there already had Amaru and it would have been a matter of time before taking the younger brother down too. He should blame himself. It wasn't Danny's fault.

But when he thought about this entire story, a gigantic flash, blinding him with huge violence, crossed his path. He closed his eyes because of this piercing light, using his other sense to figure out where he was. There was a bloody smell, powerful and nauseous near him, mixed with an antiseptic smell, typically coming from the inside of a hospital. Coming by succeeding waves, a sharp scream traveled to his ears, strong and alarming, cries. Two male voices and a female one intersected in an inaudible hubbub. He recognized them: Junior, Tani and himself. He decided to open his eyes slowly, concerned to face this shining white wall again but he was surprised to see that the setting around him had just changed.

He was in a huge room with white walls and a grey tiled floor. Three people were around a table, gathered all around a fourth person, inert and laying down on the said table. He had already experienced this before, he knew it. He could even feel it. Coming closer, he remembered this painful moment he had experienced months ago. His team and himself had just survived a biological threat on a boat and they all had to stay in quarantine for a month just to be sure that their body had destroyed the virus and they were not a carrier of it. After an umpteenth doctor visit, they'd been aware that it wasn't a doctor in front of him: someone had taken this opportunity to come inside and shoot Danny, in order to kill him. Apparently, he was an acquaintance of the injured man but he didn't recognize him, even less after he had killed himself next to the team.

Cut off from everyone and everything, unable to get out of the room without triggering the bomb hanging on the door, they were then on their own to save Danny, which was far from being the case. The detective was bleeding out, his heart not strong enough anymore to handle the pressured exerted inside his chest. He remembered that a physician was on the other side of the door, ready to help the team in keeping Danny alive enough time for Lou, the firefighters and the bomb squad to find a way in and bring the police officer in surgery. Steve had just a few medical knowledge: it was just a basic training for the military to patch superficial wounds on the field but he knew his best friend, his brother was dying. He could see it just by having an eye on his vitals.

Spectator of the scene he had experienced in the past, he saw himself as if he was a part of this scene that he had quickly repressed to think only of the positive; the fact that Danny was alive. But then he saw himself gently passing his fingers around the dressing to see if the doctor's instinct and diagnosis were good.

 _"There's something under his skin. There's like… Like these bumps under his skin."_

He remembered this awful sensation very well; feeling something rolling under his fingers without knowing what it was. He had seen things in his life as a NavySEAL: gunshot wounds, torn limbs from RPG, or even from homemade bombs with bolts, rusty nails. But this was off his limits: he could see and feel himself torn apart because of a growing panic, trying to keep the nausea deep down. In front of him, it wasn't him, this Steve everyone knew in the Navy, this man scared of nothing and who was sent away on the most dangerous and unofficial missions because anyone could be captured, tortured, killed. No, it wasn't him. It was this Steve nobody but a few people knew, this vulnerable and panicking man he decided to show up on rare occasions. But right now, the man dying on that metallic table was his best friend, his brother. It was Danny. It was more than enough to change his impassivity in the face of danger into a panic fear of losing a loved one.

 _"Those are air bubbles. That's a tension pneumothorax, possibly from a bronchopleural fistula."_

He could remember not knowing what it was but the fact that the doctor knew what he was saying helped him to get better, in a way.

 _"What does that mean?"_

 _Hopefully, Junior was there to ask the question because Steve felt unable to speak what these medical terms meant._

 _"That his chest is filling up with air faster than it's escaping and now, it's putting pressure on his heart. We need to alleviate that pressure."_

Swallowing hard, approaching his other self maintaining this oxygen mask over Danny's face, he remembered everything, the least detail, the least feeling: anger, fear, guilt, helplessness. How could he do a vital surgery on his best friend without knowing what to do? What if he was going to kill him in the process?

 _"How're we gonna do that?"_

 _"I'm gonna walk you through it. Tani, I need you to find some antiseptic wipes and towels. Go. Junior, I need you to find a disposable scalpel. Also look for a Kelly clamp; it's like a thin pair of scissors with teeth."_

 _Subjugated by the scene, he managed to raise his head as best he could to see Captain Lou Grover approaching the Plexiglas door, visibly worried._

 _"What's happening in there?"_

 _"We need to cut open Detective Williams' chest right away."_

He then remembered having to deal with a wave of immense nausea but that he also had to repress it even more deeply than the rest, because now his best friend's life depended only on him and on the success of the operation of which he knew nothing. That was what scared him. When he was on a mission, even if he didn't know what to expect, he knew where he was going, who he had to shoot or abduct, often the number of men to face to get there. Even before he got on the plane, he already knew how the operation was going to be carried out and in approximately how long. This time, he was the total darkness; he didn't know what to do or how to do it, he didn't know if Danny was going to survive or if he was going to succeed in the surgery. The whole future was unclear and he was going to have to write it as the seconds passed. It wasn't his way of working, his habits.

 _"Hey, Lou!"_

Hearing himself scream just next to him, he jumped.

 _"I'm right here, buddy."_

 _"Tell me you're getting us out of here."_

This voice, filled with exhaustion and panic... It was as if he was reliving the scene but from the outside, as a spectator. He saw himself as in a mirror, except that this time he was free to move around in the room, as a full-fledged person in the situation.

 _"All we need is a couple minute. We are going to get you out of there."_

Somehow reassured by the Captain's words, to whom he could trust with his life if he had to, he and his other self nodded and came to their senses to focus only on Danny while Junior and Tani gathered what he would need, guided by Dr. Keller.

 _"Come on, guys!"_

 _The two recent 5-0 recruits came back with the necessary instruments and placed them on the surface, between Steve and Danny while the sailor was putting the gloves._

 _"Commander, I want you to take Detective Williams' right arm and put it over his head."_

 _After having put the blue horrible gloves, he took Danny's arm and raised it in order to place it out of the surgical area. Fear came back again, observing the scene caught in an infinite whirlwind in which time could slow down. That was the impression he had when he looked at his body. He felt the same pressure, the same stress as when he was in his exact place. Because he had no right to make a mistake on an operation of which he knew nothing, not the medical terms, not the names of the instruments, nothing. Nervously, he swallowed hard and pushed all the negative thoughts he had very deep inside of him. He had to succeed. He was going to. For Danny._

 _"Now, turn his head to the left."_

 _One last time, he allowed himself to contemplate Danny's face before focusing on a simple task; saving his life. He was so afraid that it would be the last time he saw that face. After a second, he put his fingers on his jaw, shivering on contact with his icy skin, and applied Dr. Keller's rules before his next instruction._

 _"You're gonna cut into the right side of his chest."_

He remembered his trembling hands, his breath cut off each time he had to inhale, quickly aborted by the terrible smell of Danny's blood running on the table and now dripping to the ground. Steve quickly opened the bag containing the scalpel and took it in his hand, being careful not to reveal his fears to anyone. Everyone knew him as a strong and impassive man, but this was not the case, even if he had to act as such. He looked up, looked into Tani's eyes, who seemed just as worried as he was. It was a good sign; perhaps he could show some emotions? _Dr. Keller then ordered Junior and Tani to open the bags with the gauze and to place them within reach of the Commander. Once done, the real surgery could begin._

 _"First, find the middle of his collarbone."_

 _Dubious, he looked up at the doctor. Steve was reassured to know that he would make it easier for him by using vocabulary he knew. The physician seemed to know that each soldier received at least one medical training a year to use a first aid kit, provide first aid or put in an IV if necessary to keep a priority target alive. The NavySEAL, therefore, knew most of the bones of the human body, its organs and the location of the main arteries, if not more. He came to his senses and focused again on Danny. He took the greatest inspiration he could, placing his fingers where his right clavicle should be without knowing why, following the orders. Thanks to the medical officer on his SEALteam, he knew that the middle of the clavicle was perpendicular to the trunk, almost at the level of his nipple._

 _"Then slide your finger down until you feel his first rib."_

Steve could see himself tapping the area, gently lowering his finger down a line he had drawn in his head so as not to lose his bearings. _As he slipped his trembling finger, he felt a stiffness, sharpening with the soft skin he had just passed. He froze, stopping his index finger on it._

 _"Got it."_

 _"All right, good. Now, you're gonna make an incision about two inches long between his fourth and fifth ribs. It's gonna be difficult; you're gonna have to cut through flesh and tissue."_

He then remembered the terrible feeling that had run through him, the feeling that his heart stopped for a moment just at the thought of having to make this deep cut. More blood, more nausea, more panic. _He had to do it. For Danny. For Grace and Charlie. He grabbed the scalpel even more tightly with his other hand, ready to affix it to the skin and cut off the flesh, resisting without hesitation against his tremors in order to make the cleanest incision possible. He slipped his finger more, feeling the second, then the third rib. Even lower, he positioned it perfectly between the fourth and fifth ribs, as agreed, and placed the sharp knife on the skin. Blood then began to flow from the new wound, bewitching Steve even more, who had to hold back in order not to vomit in front of his colleagues. He didn't say a word, swallowing his saliva to get that awful feeling across. In vain._

 _"Okay", he said when he threw the scalpel away._

 _"Now, slide your index finger into the incision and feel for the fifth rib."_

Hell. He was in Hell. Was it that feeling Danny was now feeling? The one of being a spectator of your own memories? The powerlessness in the face of so much violence? He would have liked to be able to take the place of his double to perform the operation himself or to be able to tell him that he will succeed in saving his best friend. Because yes, it was still a doubt in the mind of the one who was performing the operation. Panic won him over, disgusted that he had to do such an abject thing. He may have been a NavySEAL, he may have been trained to endure much worse than that, but the fear of losing Danny was much greater. _He approached his face, with little hope on his; he was convinced that despite his worrying condition, his best friend could still hear him somewhere._

 _"Anything I owe you for giving me your liver, we're even."_

 _He pulled himself together, approaching his finger to the opening he had just created and hardly inserted it. He continued to push it in, forcing it through until he felt a rib to the right of his index finger._

 _"I'm in", he assured._

 _"Junior, give him the Kelly clamp", Dr. Keller ordered through the door._

He remembered almost tearing it out of Junior's hands as he gently handed it to him despite the palpable tension in the room. He knew that his double was going to succeed but he couldn't help but feel this absurd feeling deep inside him. It was a mixture of guilt and helplessness as he was trying to save Danny's life.

 _"Okay, Commander: place the tip carefully into the incision."_

 _At the same moment, Steve tried to wipe his forehead with his forearm, the sweat dripping dangerously on his face as the minutes passed. He couldn't do it with his hands to avoid soiling the gloves and then introduce germs into the chest wound, but if he didn't do anything, the sweat might drip there. Using his shirt, he felt almost refreshed as he listened carefully to the doctor._

 _"And then, do a little blunt dissection to get through the tissue to the rib."_

 _Focused on the task, he even managed to relax in order to slow down his own heart rate, take back the control of his breathing and not shiver. Using his index still inside the wound, he guided the tip of the scissors along his fingers to reach the rib._

 _"Okay."_

 _"Advance the tip of the Kelly just over the top of the rib. Make sure you stay close to the rib, so you don't nick any arteries."_

 _It was very unpleasant for him to do that. Without anesthesia or anything at all, he felt like he was doing his brother a lot more harm than good and that made him suffer terribly. He was afraid he would wake up in the middle of the operation, screaming in pain and hurting himself even more as he moved. But he had to do it. Still using his finger as a guide, he placed the clamp on his index finger and made a few movements to position his finger at rib height. Once done, he slid the tip onto the fourth rib._

 _"Okay", he repeated for the third time._

 _"Now, you're going to carefully puncture his chest wall. That's going to relieve the pressure."_

 _Moving his body to put himself in a more comfortable position, he slightly moved the scissors on the rib._ When the monitor shouted his discontent again, Steve's mind could only put his hands over his mouth in an emergency, even though he knew it was going to get better. It was stronger than him, an extraordinary instinct that he couldn't control. He could still see himself panicking as he laid his eyes on those lines on the monitor that meant nothing to him or to anyone in the room, wondering strongly what he had to do to stop it all.

 _"Push in", Dr. Keller ordered calmly._

 _"Doc, we're losing him!" Tani screamed then, turning towards him._

 _"Push in", the surgeon repeated, this time more firmly._

 _Steve did not hesitate for one more second: he took a deep breath and used what little mental strength he had left to require his right hand to move in order to push the clamp even deeper and violently, following the doctor's orders. He removed his finger, lest he be on the way to the scissors and once his next movement was made, he could quickly hear air coming out of the wound, as if a balloon filled with gas had been opened and it was slowly draining._

 _"I feel the air coming out", he explained while the rest of the air still inside Danny's chest mixed with his blood._

 _"That's it. Vitals are stabilizing," the doctor noticed._

 _The sailor had just noticed that the cardiac monitor had stopped screaming in his ears as he was too focused on one thing: keeping his brother alive the time for the rescue team to come in. This was a matter of time now._

 _"You did it", Tani retorted, relieved._

 _Comforted to have successfully completed the operation so far, he let out a deep sigh and leaned against Danny's head for a moment._

 _"Okay, now Commander, I want you to remove the clamp."_

 _Quickly, he did so while taking care of taking the path he took the other way because he still could nick an artery if he was not careful enough. As soon as the scissors were out, he got rid of them and listened to the next instructions._

 _"Put your finger back in the incision and sweep from side to side to make sure nothing is blocking the opening."_

 _Once again, he inserted his left index finger into the wound, feeling the large opening he just made in Danny's chest wall in order to save his life. He was disgusted but he had to do it. From right to left and several times, he made sure that nothing was blocking the way. Few more air bubbles came out of the incision but everything seemed okay._

 _"Junior, get ready to cover with the gauze and the tape."_

 _Steve continued his back and forth until Officer Reigns was ready to give him the gauze._

 _"Now, Commander: remove your finger."_

 _He hesitated for a few seconds but he was now totally trusting Dr. Keller. Removing his index finger, he slightly panicked when a moderate blood flow came out of the open wound but he covered it very quickly with the gauze, which Junior taped to Danny's skin to ensure a perfect seal._

 _"Good, that's right."_

Relieved, delighted to know that Danny would be all right thanks to his intervention, Steve's mind took his hands off his mouth and let a deep sigh escape. Reliving that moment had made him understand something. Even though Danny had not taken the bullet because of him, he felt deeply guilty of not having able to protect him as he had promised. This guilt had gnawed at him for a whole afternoon as they all waited impatiently in the waiting room, hoping that Dr. Keller would come back into the room as soon as possible to give them news of the detective. He hadn't said anything, had acted as if nothing had happened, but that feeling had never really left him. For him, he had almost killed his brother and that was worth all the sentences in the world.

And if he felt that way when he had been trained to live and survive all this, he could not imagine what Danny was in now when he was being butchered by doctors in an operating room in order to live. This helpless, this guilt of not being there when it was needed, to cover him in this potentially deadly shooting, was the heavy weight that his friend had to carry on his shoulders. And that, he could not tolerate it. Just for that, he had to fight for his survival.

* * *

In the surgical ward, the three doctors had been busy saving Steve's life for many minutes as the heart monitor screamed louder and louder, faster and faster. Thanks to their cumulative precision, the three accomplices were finally able to stop the internal bleeding, Dr. Yen asked one of the nurses to set up a new blood bag on the rapid transfuser.

"Heart rate is dropping, blood pressure and saturation are coming up", the anesthesiologist explained proudly.

A sigh of relief seized the entire room and once again, the nurses were able to applaud as the surgeons tightened his ribs towards his repaired sternum and began to close the surgical site.

* * *

Three hours after receiving the call from her ex-husband, Rachel was worried as she had not received another phone call from him. She was reluctant to call him but she was in front of the school complex where Grace and Charlie were and that came first. Hearing the bell, she got out of the car and leaned against the door on the passenger side, patiently watching the children exit one by one through the front door in an almost daily noise.

"Mommy!"

Surprised, she hadn't seen that her son, Charlie, had already gone out and was reaching out to her. She stooped down and took him in her arms, relieved to finally have him close to her.

"Hi, Mom! I thought it was Danno's turn to pick us up tonight", the girl who had joined them noticed almost coldly.

Of course, she was happy to see her mother, but she saw her father too little at the moment, and every moment spent with him was just masterful for her and her little brother.

"Yes, there's been a change of plan. Danno can't take you this weekend."

"Again? But Mom, we haven't seen him in a month!" Grace rebelled.

"I want to see Danno, Mom!" Charlie added.

Unable to hold back her emotions, driven by the simultaneous insistence of her two children, she sighed and decided to tell them the whole truth.

"Uncle Steve has been shot today", she explained, holding her son's hands. "And it is pretty bad. Danno is in the hospital and he is waiting for the doctors and the surgery to be over. Do you understand?"

"But mom, it means that Danno is alone in the hospital?"

"No Charlie, I think uncle Lou, uncle Junes and aunt Tani are there too."

"Is uncle Steve gonna be okay?"

"Oh, honey, I can't tell you. The doctors are trying to heal him but they don't know if they're going to save him. I am pretty they do everything that they can."

"Dad can't be on his own. If he can't be with us, then we go to the hospital to be with him", Charlie insisted.

"Yes, mom. Maybe it'll please Danno to see us after all. You know him, he should be out of his mind", Grace affirmed.

Her children were right, she knew it. But she couldn't do that to them, especially Charlie. Her eldest daughter was old enough to understand what was going on but not her son. He was still too young to assimilate everything. Thinking back on her conversation with her ex-husband, she felt that touch of sadness, anger and guilt that she had never felt before.

"Alright, we're going to the hospital to see Danno", she gave in, to the delight of her children. "But I want you to listen to me carefully, okay? At the slightest problem, and I insist on it, you talk to me, or your uncles and aunt, we agree?"

"We agree", the two siblings affirmed with one voice.

The two children got in the car while Rachel called the 5-0 office when she realized she didn't know which hospital he was in. Falling on Jerry, he gave her the information and she was able to take the wheel to drive off nearby to Queen's hospital. With this daily traffic jams after school, the troops managed to park the car before getting out and heading inside the emergency room. At the admissions office, they were referred by Lorenzo, who, when he realized he was dealing with Detective Williams' ex-wife, explained to her what had happened before he called her. Worried, she thanked the nurse and headed for the break room. She barely had time to open the door when she saw Danny, completely collapsed on the couch with his three colleagues by his side.

"Danno!" Charlie screamed, running towards his father.

"Hey, monkey!"

It was one of the first smile Daniel had had since the incident and it immediately made the team smile again. Grace stood back near her mother, feeling that the situation was much worse than Rachel had told her. Just seeing her father, so weak and depressed, she knew that something was wrong when Charlie was receiving a long hug from him. Danny lifted his head towards his ex-wife and used his lips to thank her and his free arm to ask Grace to come forward. She did so, coming close to her father after Junior had given up his place, and placed her head on his shoulder.

"Mom told you about what happened, didn't she?"

"Uncle Steve was hurt by the bad guys", Charlie explained.

"Yes, that's right. And... And there was nothing I could do to stop the bad guys from hurting Uncle Steve."

"Danno, there was nothing you could have done. A bad guy is still a bad guy, and if he wants to hurt someone, he will", Grace tried to make her father understand by using words that her little brother could understand. "Uncle Steve is very strong, everything will be fine, you'll see."

For the second time in the afternoon, Danny allowed himself to smile, comforted by the arrival of his two children. He didn't blame Rachel for telling them the truth and even less for being around him. It boosted him more and Grace and Charlie's positive thoughts were even stronger than his own negative thoughts.

At the same time, the door opened behind Rachel and, with a start, she moved away from the entrance, revealing the doctor who was treating Steve when he arrived in the emergency room and who had gone into surgery with him. This time, he was not accompanied by his two students and he looked exhausted. Leaving his two children behind, Danny got up and asked without a word how Steve was doing. His first answer was a long sigh.

"The Commander gave us quite a scare but he made it out of surgery."

These simple words, hard to hear though, relieved the whole Ohana.

"Uncle Steve is okay now? He's okay, isn't he?" Charlie asked innocently.

Seeing the doctor's embarrassment, Junior decided to take the young boy out of the room, using a snack outing as an excuse and to bring his sister's snack back when Danny assured him that Steve was fine. Once they left, the conversation could resume.

"Is there a problem with Steve, Doctor?" Rachel asked Dr. Yen before anyone could ask him the same question.

"As I had expected, the bullet did a lot of damage. It destroyed his sternum, went through his right lung and nicked his pulmonary artery before hitting the scapula. When we finished the surgery, the Commander's body started to shut down again and we didn't know why. But after a few internal examinations, we found the real problem: the bullet also grazed the heart muscle and the latter suffered some internal injuries that we could not see until the surgery was over. We repaired his heart and now his vitals are stabilizing."

This explanation relieved Danny, Rachel, Tani, Lou and Grace. The young girl was still a minor but she was old enough to understand what was going on and her parents even agreed to give her more responsibilities and independence, to the point that she wished to stay with the grown-ups.

"So, uncle Steve is… Good?" she tried to ask the physician in front of her.

"Well… As I said several hours ago, the medications he is taking on a daily basis greatly weakened his immune system and he's currently fighting an infection. Add to that the fact that he lost a huge amount of blood, that his body is not supporting well his actual medication and the physical toll on such a risky thoracic surgery and you have an explosive device on your hands. As you're his medical next of kin, Detective, with your agreement, I would like to keep the Commander in a medically induced coma for a couple days, to allow his body to recover from the surgery and the physical stress it just endured and to give his immune system some time to get rid of the infection."

Danny grunted his teeth because it was up to him to make this decision for his brother in love. He was in pain for him, the guilt he had managed to evacuate thanks to his children galloping back deep inside him.

"Is he… Is he in pain?"

"For the moment, no. But I'm afraid that with the anesthesia wearing off, his body will start to react to painful stimuli. As you know, his body has difficulty withstanding morphine and many other medications and therefore, if he wakes up..."

There was no need to go any further, the whole Ohana had understood what the doctor was getting at.

* * *

 **A/N: Have you managed to follow this flashback memory from Steve while he's in surgery? If not, let me explain it. When it is written in italic, it's when the scene is taken from season 8 episode 10. When it is written normally, it is when Steve had the "hallucination" and thought back to what he had endured that day because he is wondering how Danny is facing the situation. **

**I hope you liked this chapter and if so, leave me reviews down below ^ I love reading them**

 **See you next week ^_^**


	5. Too hard

Hey there! Again, I didn't update yesterday because... Okay I have no decent excuse but I couldn't do it before now, so here is the fifth chapter of the story.

I have a lack of inspiration these past few days and it had become hard to write. I have everything in my head, all set up, but no words can come out of my brain to describe what I see. Strange, huh? That is why I can't tell you WHEN I will update this story (hopefully next weekend but can't be 100% sure).

Plus, I have personal things to take care of so I'll have less time to write for at least 2 months. We'll see ^^

But for now, let's see where this fifth chapter goes, right?

Enjoy the reading!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 5**

Danny didn't hesitate for a second to give his consent to the physician. He entrusted him the very first moment he heard that he had already saved his life not only once but twice so far. Moreover, he knew damn too well how risky and painful a heart surgery could be. He had been there when he had come close to death a few months prior; he had suffered for a month at the bare minimum and he was under strong painkiller at the time. Steve couldn't be because of his intolerance to morphine and most opiates. And even though he had been trained to endure much more pain than a normal human being, this suffering could turn anyone crazy.

The only thing that hurt him more than his own pain was seeing his family suffer, particularly when it came to his two children or his brother in heart. Three times in his life he had been scared to death that Steve would die and twice he had overcome his claustrophobia, causing himself hours of panic in a plane without windows, without being able to see the outside world, just to find him.

Yes, he could dig his biggest fear in order to bring his partner back home. That was how deep their friendship was. And even if he didn't say anything, he too had guessed Steve's greatest fear. Because this over-trained man who claimed not to be afraid of anything was lying every time he said that. Maybe he hadn't noticed it himself, and maybe that was why he said he was aphobic?

Or he just couldn't face the truth, Danny didn't know. He didn't figure this out immediately; it took him years to gather all the evidence, clues and mimics from Steve to finally understand what his fear was. Because even if he was trained to be an almost inhuman tough guy, a being made of flesh and blood remained universal and had to have at least one fear. And McGarrett was no exception.

"Danno?"

Surprised, the detective startled slightly and turned toward this soft voice he knew too well. He smiled stupidly, almost nervously in order not to hide his stress.

"What is it, monkey?"

"Can I see Uncle Steve?"

His smiled faded in a second. A moment he had feared; when he became a cop and thought about becoming a father, he soon realized that one day, his children would be old enough to take their own decisions and see horrible things because they would then feel all grown-up. But for him, they would still be their babies, innocent people who shouldn't see their favorite uncle in a hospital bed, hooked up to various machines keeping him alive. Steve was in this case, he was sure. Being in a coma, even medically induced, it was having no control of his body because it had to take the time to heal. And not being in control, it meant no spontaneous breathing and sleeping very deeply. That was his view of the current situation.

"Grace, I know you are seventeen now and that you're old enough to take this decision on your own", Rachel started, seeing the distress over her ex-husband's face. "But I think. Your father and I think that it would be more prudent for you to not see him right now. Do you understand?"

"I am old enough to understand that Uncle Steve has been hurt pretty bad and that he's lucky to even be alive right now. And I've already seen all this in movies and tv shows."

"This is not a fiction, Grace. This is reality", her father intervened. "You do not have the emotional shock you can face in real life, you can't have the same fears and you can never be prepared to what you see. Never."

"I want to see Uncle Steve", she said, determined.

Danny knew that he would lose this battle and he didn't have the strength to fight her daughter. His mind was elsewhere, he was with Steve. What he had just said to Grace was true: even when you've already been there, even when you thought of being prepared for everything, seeing things from his own eyes was totally different to what you could expect. Worse, the more you faced this reality and the more it hurt. And right now, he knew he would lose against his daughter about it. What a bad father he was not to say "no" to Grace. He sighed deeply, deciding to block his gaze on Rachel's in order to get her blessing. She too thought that her daughter was not mature enough to handle such a situation but perhaps she needed this to understand that she could not control everything in her life, let alone the worries.

"Grace. This is not against you, alright? But I stand in my position: it would be wiser to see him under better circumstances", Rachel insisted.

"And I want to see Uncle Steve", Grace explained, even more determined. "NOW!"

This rage deep inside her that she had just expressed, it was the first time her parents had ever seen this. Danny's daughter was on the verge of tears and her hands were shaking. It was not a crisis like any other; she needed to see her uncle. To see that it was real and not a nightmare. The detective and his ex-wife looked at each other, wondering what to do to relieve their eldest daughter's fear and anger. Sighing both of them, they gave in.

"Just promise me one thing", her father asked.

"Anything if it means that I can see him."

"If you think that this is too much to bear for you, I want you to leave the room. Alright?" he explained in a grave tone.

A long silence settled in the room while a nurse opened the door and sought attention.

"We have placed the Commander into his room in the ICU. You can follow me but only two at a time. It's protocol."

Danny turned toward the whole family to know who should see him first but there was no doubt.

"Go with Grace. We'll go later", Lou stipulated. "You both need it."

In a nod, he signaled his appreciation for this decision and began to follow the nurse with Grace by his side.

"Detective Williams? I'm sorry, but children are not allowed in the intensive care unit", the nurse replied.

"I'm not a child, I'm eighteen," Grace lied very seriously, her father saying nothing to correct her.

For a moment, she didn't really believe her, but she gave up when she saw the girl's red eyes. _Maybe she has a special connection with my patient,_ she thought to herself.

"Over here," she finally said with a slight smile.

They took an elevator to the second floor and then turned left to find themselves at the nurses' office.

"Please wait here for a few seconds, I'll be right back."

The nurse escaped from the grip of the two people accompanying her as Danny and Grace looked at their new environment. The place was filled with a nauseous smell of antiseptic, the walls were covered with a white capturing the light but did not reflect it, as if to avoid dazzling the patients locked up here in serious, sometimes fatal conditions. Intensive care was not called that by chance: it treated the most affected patients, those who needed more attention than others, those in a state of concern requiring particularly increased surveillance. Behind the desk, a window reflected the control screens that visitors could not see directly. For the most part, these were incomprehensible lines that were shaking from time to time. Sometimes a few beeps rang in the open space, scaring Grace.

Danny then remembered that his daughter never entered an ICU and that she was on the verge of panicking. She had seen this in movies and shows, huh? He was right: these weren't the same sensations, the same feelings when it came to a sibling. But he said nothing, showing his support but taking her hand and squeezing it to reassure her.

"What are those lines on the windows, dad?"

It was rare for her to call him this way. It was only when she needed something or when she was very happy or scared.

"I don't know", he said honestly. "I think that... It might be the patients' vitals. Those from the ICU."

That was the most logical explanation he had in mind.

"These are indeed our patients' vitals", a voice resonated next to them, startling both of them.

They turned around and faced once again the nurse.

"All the monitors are connected to this control room. It allows us to see if a patient needs help or if there is a problem with one of them. Or to see any change."

"So, you have those from my uncle in here?"

"Of course! First screen, top lines."

"Does this mean something? The fact that his vitals are on top of the others?"

"Only that he's in our first room. No worries, honey."

Grace had been scared that because of this position on the screen, it meant that Steve was their most injured patient or worse, that they should monitor him more closely than anyone else because he could die anytime. She inherited her father's negative thoughts when facing a very bad situation.

"Commander McGarrett is ready for his first visitors."

Taking her father's hand greatly, this one without any hesitation, they walked behind the nurse who indicated the room in which Steve was. The first one giving to the desk. The stores were down for now in order to give them some privacy, the young woman taking care of him stopping next to the door and turning back again toward them.

"I must warn you. People in a medically induced coma are sensitive to interactions next to them. They can sometimes hear what's happening around."

"Uncle Steve is conscious?"

"No, Grace", Danny started. "Uncle Steve is..."

As he didn't know how to explain the situation, he asked without a word for any help from the nurse, who understood what was happening immediately.

"Your uncle is still under the effects of anesthesia. But once it is out of his system, he might hear you. Reassuring words should be able to help him get better."

"I don't understand. You say he can hear us but he's not conscious?"

"When you dream in your sleep, does it happen that something around you becomes a part of your dream? Your phone, your alarm, noise in your bedroom..."

Grace nodded while frowning, not understand what she meant.

"For your uncle, it's similar. He's deeply asleep but what's happening in the room can be in his dreams. But the medications we are currently giving him prevent him from waking up."

"So, if we talk to him, he can hear us but he can't wake up or... Or react?"

"Directly, no. But indirectly, he can react: his vitals may stabilize if he feels a familiar and reassuring presence, amongst other things. He may also heal faster by giving him the motivation to fight. Talk to him so he can be aware of your presence. It will give him the strength to get better for sure."

"Okay. I understand better. Can I see Uncle Steve now?"

Danny slightly smiled at Grace's impatience, even though deep down he was terrified of exposing her to such an emotional shock.

"Sure. Go ahead."

As the nurse moved away from the door, the policeman's daughter activated the handle to enter the room. And the first thing she could feel was the tension coming from within. She had not yet walked inside but she already sensed the problems. The sounds and smell came first: a kind of antiseptic mixture and ointments that took the nose at a mad speed. The room was so large that any beep sounded in the room and very quickly she could hear small beeps from her left, very far apart. That squeal that came back regularly, quickly. Fear seized her but she did not disassemble herself, on the contrary. One step at a time, she found herself in the room and decided to look to the left to find out where those creepy sounds were coming from. Slowly, her eyes fell on the end of a bed, then a body lying in it. A body that she didn't recognize at first, but knew who it belonged to. Very quickly, her breathing stopped and she felt that she no longer really had control over her own body. She could feel her father's presence behind her, trying to support her with one hand on her shoulder, but she couldn't imagine her favorite uncle, the one she could confide in when she didn't want her own parents to learn certain things, dying in a hospital bed.

"I can't do it", she managed to say after all.

She turned around and ran away so quickly that she pushed her motionless father. He was unable to hunt her down because he was paralyzed by the scene in front of him.

"I'll take care of your daughter," a female voice intervened behind him.

One or two seconds later, he heard the door close and quickly found himself alone in the room with only the incessant beeping and screeching that made him sick.

"My God, Steve," he whispered as he slowly approached the bed.

What he could see what beyond everything he had ever imagined. He had never seen his brother in such a weakened state. Looking closer, he could see how pale his complexion was, almost as white as the sheets in which he was placed. Two cushions were positioned under his elbows to slightly raise his arms, probably to prevent the surgical area from being stretched. One of his hands was on his stomach while the other was on his hip. But the scariest thing came along. Above the limit set by the sheets, a long and thick bandage was covering a large part of his chest, oozing slightly in its center. At the left clavicle, there was a kind of intravenous line connected to all kinds of bags filled with transparent liquids. Probably the drugs the doctors were giving him. To the right of the bed, there was a container with a clear liquid on one side and a liquid turning into a light red on the other. A damn chest tube, there was no doubt about it.

Looking up a little more, he blocked his gaze on Steve's face. This one was turned to the right, almost calm, in peace. His lips were separated from each other, letting a long tube pass down his throat to reach his lungs and connected to a device with two large plastic tubes. Following with the eyes where it led them, they were both connected to a machine placed very close to the bed with a screen indicating each breath it delivered in a screeching that froze the blood. Without knowing why, Danny started counting. Five seconds. It was the time between the beginning of two induced inspirations. He continued his observation, looking wherever he could look. A tube, thinner than the one anchored in his trachea, penetrated his nose to reach his stomach in order to feed him, to keep the muscles of the digestive system active because in a coma, whether natural or not, he could not feed himself. That was the hard reality. Steve was only a shadow of himself and never in his life had he known him in such an alarming state.

Shocked, not knowing what to do or what to say, he sat down in the first chair he could find. He put his elbows on the bed, very close to Steve's right arm, joining his hands while closing his eyes to start praying. In the vain hope that all this was just another nightmare.

* * *

Grace didn't know what to think or do anymore. She was completely confused by what she had just seen. She had thought she was strong enough to endure the shock, but she was wrong to stand up to her parents. The teenager was by no means able to bear such a horrible vision. She had probably been stupid to think that watching movies and tv shows could prepare her for the worst, but it was impossible. Her father and mother had warned her: when it came to someone in the family, no matter how much you said you could handle the emotional shock, it was never the case. You could never get used to all this and it was only now that she understood it. Terrified, on the verge of panicking, she tried to take a breath of fresh air but she couldn't. It was as if his breathing had stopped working.

"Grace! Grace!"

A voice came to her ears, one she recognized but seemed so unfamiliar. The nurse. She was screaming as she cried all the tears in her body. She turned to that voice that continued to call her, paralyzed by the visions invading her. Her uncle, her favorite uncle. It was him in that hospital bed, kept alive only by a machine, attached to all those tubes that terrified her. It was not what she had hoped for, far from it.

"Grace? Oh, sweetie."

In a surge of comfort, she gave in under the pressure of the images in her mind and collapsed in the arms of the nurse who came to meet her. She cried, her tears wetting the young woman's clothing as she held her in her arms. She could feel Grace shaking and on the verge of a panic attack. Her heart was beating on her chest as if it was beating out of her rib cage. That was not a good sign.

"Grace, I'm going to ask you to sit down on the floor and follow my instructions, okay? Come on, get on the ground", she asked, understanding what was going on.

This young girl she was trying to help was on her first time in an intensive care unit, and she doubted about her true age. Maybe she was right, but that wasn't the immediate concern at the time, she had to help her regain control. Somehow, she put her down on the ground and made her take a fetal position.

"Now you're going to breathe in for two seconds, block your breathing for another two seconds and breathe out for two seconds. Come on, Grace, you can do it. We breathe in... We block... And breathe out... Do it again, Grace, until you feel better."

Following the nurse's instructions without really understanding why, she began to use this technique while shaking and crying, even plunging her head between her arms to avoid her gaze.

"That's good, Grace. Keep it up like that. Breathe in and out."

After many minutes of panic, the teenager realized that it was working, her tremors had almost disappeared, her breathing had become almost normal again, although tears were still running down her pink and icy cheeks.

"Are you better now?"

Slowly, she nodded and got her head out to strengthen, meeting for the first time the nurse's gaze since they entered the room. She then sat down beside her, inhaling for a long time.

"You're not eighteen, are you?"

"I'm going to be. In a few months."

"Do you now understand why children are not allowed in the service?"

"I'm not a child!" Grace protested.

She sighed, blaming herself for getting mad at an innocent woman.

"I'm sorry. I... I just needed to see him."

"I understand, believe me. But even for adults, the emotional shock is very huge. Sometimes even so gigantic that they can't get through the doors."

"I thought... I thought I was prepared for all this but I was wrong", she confessed, wiping away her tears.

"I guess... I guess this is the first time your uncle has been badly hurt?"

"No. No, he's already been admitted to intensive care, but that was two years ago. My father had to give him part of his liver to save him but I was too young so the first time I saw him was... About a week later? When they transferred him to a room outside the unit."

"I see. Grace, you have to understand that... That your uncle is very sick right now. He suffered a very severe physical shock and the medication weakened him. At this very moment, his body is trying to fight an infection and we have limited medication to offer him because of his intolerances to several essential drugs that cannot be injected."

"Such as painkillers?"

"Among other things, yes. Nor can he be given heparin, the main drug used to thin his blood and prevent clots from forming. Or give him beta-blockers to prevent arrhythmias, so that his heart doesn't beat too fast."

"But... But his heart. I heard it in the room and it was beating very slowly."

"That's why we're keeping a close eye on him, Grace. The medication we give him should increase his heart rate and the better he is, the faster his heart will beat."

"So if... If his heart goes into... Arrhythmia? Can't you do anything?"

"We're in the process of... Sorting out the options available to us, in case that happens. But if he is injected with the wrong medication, it could make his condition worse. The doctor in charge of his case is looking for the solution, okay?"

Swallowing her saliva, Grace nodded and even allowed herself to smile slightly at the nurse.

"Do you promise me Uncle Steve will get better?"

"Honey, I can't promise you anything. Our patients are sometimes too sick to fight and we can't save them. But I want you to know that we do everything that we can to help him fight. We do our best for our patients."

"Even the bad guys?"

"We... Our ethics requires us to treat all patients, whether they are mean or kind. But deep down, doctors and nurses alike, we hope that treating the bad guys turns them into nice people. Your uncle's not a bad guy, is he?"

"No. He's the one who stops them. He is the head of 5-0."

"5-0, huh? Your uncle is the great Steve McGarrett that everyone here is talking about?"

She knew who her patient was, of course, but the only way to relax the girl by her side was to make her talk so that she would not think about what she had seen.

"Do you know my uncle?"

"Not directly, but we love gossips in hospitals. As a result, we keep up with the news. He sends us several patients every month."

"The bad guys he arrested?"

"It's protocol, sweetie. All the bad guys who are arrested go through the hospital for a full exam before being sent to prison. Some doctors and nurses even served in the army with him."

"The Navy", she corrected with a smile. "Danno often annoys Uncle Steve when he talks about the army and he always corrects him by saying that he is in the Navy."

"And who is Danno?"

"My dad. But Uncle Steve and I are the only ones allowed to call him Danno because he doesn't like it."

The two women laughed uncontrollably, but it felt good to get out of the chaos of intensive care for five minutes.

"I have to get back to my post, Grace. Do you want to go back to your father? Or find your family?"

"I... I have the right to go back to my father?"

"If you think it's too much for you, I wouldn't recommend it. Especially since you're underage to enter. I can tell your father that you have joined the rest of your family if you want."

"Yes, I prefer... I prefer not to see Uncle Steve again in this condition. Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything, sweetie."

"Can you tell Uncle Steve that I love him very much?"

Surprised by the girl's request, she stood there doing nothing for a few seconds before agreeing and smiling.

"I'll tell him. I can promise you that."

In turn, Grace smiled, thanking the nurse before leaving the department to join her mother and family while the nurse headed back to Steve's room again. The doctor had asked that a staff member take his vitals every 15 minutes or so, and she had already been talking to the girl for about ten minutes. Once she arrived at the door, she took a deep breath and knocked gently on the door before entering. Quickly, she stepped forward to the bed as Danny stood up as best he could to not let anything appear. But she didn't say anything, she just smiled slightly as she looked at the screen that showed Steve's vital signs. She was quite satisfied with the results, although he had only been out of surgery for an hour.

"Everything's okay?"

She turned to the male voice that had called her.

"Your partner is hanging in there. It seems we have found the right medication to help him fight."

"What an irony, though. He is a NavySEAL who can withstand anything and everything but now he is bedridden with a strong intolerance to several drugs essential to his survival."

Danny wasn't wrong. This kind of intolerance was quite rare, especially in these cases.

"Maybe that's why he can endure more pain than normal. Drug intolerants learn to live without these drugs and this increases their ability to withstand shocks. If he has learned to live without pain medication, his mind has become accustomed to fighting this pain differently.

"The first time I proposed him a Tylenol, I thought I was going to die. He said he didn't need it and I almost got his fist in the face but he said no more. I had to look for the information and asked his former colleagues about it. When I understood, I felt... I felt bad for him."

Danny strengthened, taking a deep breath.

"He must have been through Hell I don't know how many times and he never said anything. And each time he's in pain, I feel helpless."

"That's why we are giving him three different medications to act as a painkiller."

Normally, doctors and nurses didn't talk about the treatments given to patients with their relatives, but Danny seemed in need to know what to expect. So the nurse decided to tell him the truth.

"His body seems to tolerate opioids, drugs that act like morphine derivatives. We give him oxycodone combined with vitamin C and caffeine so that his body can more effectively metabolize the pain reliever. We monitor every fifteen minutes _in situ_ and with the desk to monitor all changes that may occur with possible side effects such as low blood pressure or severe sweating. We are trying to fight the fever and infection with a cocktail of four drugs that seems to stabilize his condition and we are also monitoring for any side effects. We check the activity of his kidneys, liver, stomach and make sure we keep an eye on his lungs and heart as well. In addition to these drugs, we are inserting into his system enough to keep his tissues and organs functioning with a saline solution and we will feed him with the probe for as long as he remains under artificial ventilation, which should take a few days."

She also took a breath, continuing to check all the sensitive points: blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, oxygenation, pupils, urine. Everything had to be watched.

"We are really doing everything necessary to keep him in a state of rest and comfort so that his body can start fighting and we will be there to accompany him all the way until he gets out of the intensive care unit. Or even after."

Slowly, Danny nodded, summarizing what he had just learned in his head: Steve was so drugged right now that he really didn't know what was happening to him. But what reassured him was that in this state, it was impossible for him to feel the slightest pain, the slightest stress. He just had to focus on his healing and fighting the infection he contracted by taking the damn bullet.

"Thank you. I know that normally you are not allowed to discuss medication with us."

"Indeed. But I think it was necessary for you to know everything about what's going on. Your partner is very seriously injured. Even though he has a very strong mind, his body may not follow this rhythm and he may start to shut down. It is also for this reason that we come to his bedside so often: we do not want this to happen and we try to avoid any sign that the infection is winning the battle."

"I understand. Believe me, I will. But this is the first time I have seen him in such a state and... And I don't know what to do", he confessed, plunging his head into his hands. "I don't know what to do."

The nurse felt bad for her patient's family. She had seen similar cases since she arrived in the hospital a year earlier but never as strong as the bond between Steve and Danny.

"Your daughter, Grace. She seems very attached to her uncle. She didn't want to come back but asked me to tell her that she loved him very much."

Danny started smiling.

"Sometimes I feel like she loves him more than me. He's very protective of Grace. I feel sorry for the person who will try to hurt her one day. I may be his father, but I won't be able to get my hands on the asshole who dares. But he won't hesitate. It's a killing machine. He is an animal."

"I've heard that expression before..."

"One of your emergency room nurses explained to me that... That it was the way you called former military guys who converted to civilian life."

"I'll take it as a compliment then", the young woman smiled back, finishing writing her observations on the piece of paper hanging on the edge of the bed.

"What, are you one too?"

"Marine Corps, transmission. It was a long time ago and... We are the least... Affected by this problem of rehabilitation to normal life."

"Shooting people just for fun, always dressing in a shirt and cargo pants, driving like maniacs, having fun with grenades and sharks, I'm not sure that after nine years of civilian life, this man is fit to live in a normal society."

"He's a NavySEAL. I think they are in what is called an extenuating circumstance."

Danny smiled again as he thought about everything he had been through with Steve.

"You two should get along. I'm serious. You seem as crazy as he is."

"Thank you," she said with a big smile. "You should rest. And have this hurting hand of yours get checked at."

"Someone has already checked it. No fracture."

"Did you get an X-ray?"

"No."

"Even a doctor needs an X-ray for a suspected broken bone. Or prescribed pain medication. Have your hand checked or you will regret it later", she vouched for when she left the room.

He sighed, looking at Steve again.

"You know what? I'm gonna go out for a while so the others can see you. And... And then I'll come back to you, okay?"

Delicately and tenderly, he passed his unhurt hand through his partner's hair and gently approached him, with a slight smile hiding his fear of losing him.

"I love you."

He did not take his eyes off him for long seconds, instinctively panicked at the thought of having to leave him for even a moment. Because he knew that deep down, it could be the last image of Steve still alive that he was printing in his memory.

* * *

 **A/N:** **So, what do you think? A bit hard, huh? Or not? Are you wondering what Steve's _phobia_ is after nine years? I think I have always wondered and I have logical explanations for it (you'll see later). BUT if you have some theories and some clues/evidences about it, tell me in a review; we can discuss about it!**


	6. Immortality

Hello dear readers!

I know, I am late. A week late actually. But I have good reasons; I wanted to give you a very good chapter to read. So here it is, after a two-week writing torture (I have finished it just two hours ago so I translated it very fast just for you!)

I also wanted to give a special thanks to SteveMcGarrettLover who helped me get through some lack of inspiration and complete a part of this chapter. And NO, I didn't spoil her at all. Well, I did but not for that part, trust me; she'll discover the whole story just like you by reading this 8K-word part.

As usual, I hope you will like it!

Have a nice weekend

* * *

 **CHAPTER 6**

Danny didn't want to take the elevator to go down to the main floor. He needed the stairs, he had to walk. He felt like a lion in a cage in this narrow metal box and he didn't have the heart to face his own body. All he wanted were answers to his questions, to know that Steve was going to be okay, as always. He also did not want to go to the ER to have his right hand checked again. It wasn't a matter of trust, it was just that he didn't want anyone to approach him. Not in this state of stress and perpetual anguish. He did not want to hurt anyone he hardly knew without wanting to, and that was what he feared most at the time. Maybe it was weird but his head was so far away that at the slightest gesture, at the slightest misplaced word, Danny could lose control.

But on the other hand, there was this doctor who came to rescue him when he was out of it, shortly after the operation to keep Steve alive began. Even though he was completely exhausted, he was still conscious at the time and one sentence caught his attention: if a loyalty card was created for hospitals, Steve would be the winner. What could that mean? What did he mean by that? And this nurse, Lorenzo, was positive: this doctor and Steve knew each other and had been overseas together. Maybe seeing him could give him an initial answer?

Continuing to advance down the stairs, he took the way to the ER. He first went into the break room to tell the others that he could go see Steve but the room was empty. Only two doctors and three nurses were there, having reinvested the place he had invaded for hours during the day. Asking where his family had gone and realizing that they had all gone to another room on the upper floors, he left the room, looking around him to see the doctor who had taken care of him. It was hard to remember a face he had never seen before. At least he could use his other senses to orient himself, that was the advantage. His voice remained engraved in his head. Soft and at the same time serious, sharp with Steve's, a little more acute than his but much more marked.

Despite the constant noise in the large room, he was able to orient himself towards a familiar voice that sounded like the one he had heard a few hours earlier. Very quickly, he found himself facing a doctor whom he recognized almost immediately. Anyway, he felt like he'd seen it somewhere before. Searching in his memory, he remembered having clearly seen a picture of himself. In this famous file on Operation Strawberry Field that Steve said he should never have seen at the time. That day, he had seen several pictures, including Steve's, but on one of the cards was the picture of this doctor and his name, it was the only information he could read before his partner tore the file out of his hands with a panicked face that he had not recognized.

"David Malaka," he says out loud without realizing it.

Almost instantly, the same doctor he had recognized turned to him. He smiled slightly and stopped in his task, entrusting it to one of his colleagues. He ripped off his gloves and put them in the garbage before joining Danny.

"You are the police officer I took care of earlier, aren't you?"

"I think so. Detective Danny Williams. Please to meet you."

"Dr. David Malake. But I think you already know my name."

Out of habit, Danny reached out his right hand before changing his mind with a slight smile on his face. They shook hands before Danny observed him more closely.

"How's your hand?"

Surprised in his thoughts, he jumped slightly before letting go of the doctor's hand.

"Sorry, uh... A nurse uh... Advised me to do an x-ray."

"Does your hand hurt you?"

"Let's just say I'd rather not move it right now."

"I see. Come with me, we'll look at all this between two patients."

Without a word, Danny followed the doctor to the end of the corridor. The hospital was well done; one radiology room and another with a ct-scan and MRI were located as close as possible to the patients in case he was not stable enough for transport. Luckily, the room had just become available and the doctor was able to negotiate the place for a few minutes to take some pictures.

"I'm going to have to remove the bandage from your hand."

Once again, Danny handed it to him and delicately, his new friend pulled the tape from him. The detective grunted his teeth several times before seeing the condition of his hand.

"I think I'm going to revise my diagnosis. In view of the swelling of your hand and the hematoma, I believe you have at least cracked a few bones. Let's see all this."

He asked a nurse to adjust the camera to take the pictures while Danny meticulously followed the instructions given to him. After five minutes, Dr. Malaka returned to the room and asked him to follow him again, this time to a smaller room with a sign above it: a plaster room.

"It's broken, isn't it?" Danny asked when entering the room.

"Not really broken but you have cracked two metacarpal bones in your hand. If you exert any pressure on them or move them too much, it can turn into a fracture."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Well, first we'll immobilize your index, middle and ring fingers and make a temporary bandage to make the injured area breathe and try to reduce the swelling."

Danny and David said nothing more for a long time before the tension was no longer bearable for the policeman.

"You know Steve", he asked without really asking questions because he knew he was right.

"Is that how you know my name? I'm almost certain you were knocked out when I treated you in the break room."

"No. No, to be honest, Steve doesn't often talk about his time before we meet. This remains an apparently sensitive issue."

"The Commander is a NavySEAL first and foremost. Most of his missions are classified. He has no right to talk about it."

"I know, but... He could talk about missions that are not or no longer classified, you know what I mean? But every time, he changes the subject."

"I can understand."

"You... You said that Steve was going to the infirmary a lot."

"You weren't so knocked out apparently!" he spoke while continuing to immobilize Danny's fingers. "With each mission completed, the soldiers who took part in the mission are sent to the nurse station to check that everything is fine. And sometimes McGarrett would be brought in by force or on a stretcher."

"He's a pain in the ass when it comes to take him to the hospital, I see it's not new."

"Actually, his last mission as a SEAL member ended with a direct go to the hospital."

"Oh, yeah? He played with a grenade and it exploded near him? No, wait, I think I got it: he tripped and broke his leg!"

"You're not far away, but that's not exactly what happened."

"Then explain to me. Because I only know the post-army Steve."

"Navy."

"Is it a habit with you to keep taking people back?" he says, talking about the military in general. "Looks like it's a pride to be a Navy man."

"It is. And to tell the truth, a soldier who is told to be part of the Navy also takes people back. We are all proud of our membership in a specific military corps."

"I see. So can you explain it to me?"

"What do you know about McGarrett when he was still a NavySEAL?"

Danny took a few seconds for himself to try to give a chronological order to all the information he had had: he knew that Steve had started military school at the age of eighteen and that he entered the marine school a year later to become a NavySEAL, which he managed to get in the early 2000s. After that, he didn't know much, except that he had done several missions with Nick Taylor AKA Bullfrog and with his best friend at the time, Freddie Hart. He completed with him his last mission before creating the 5-0 Task Force and being transferred to the reserve.

"I also know that he was involved, probably as a team leader, in a covert operation called Strawberry Field. And that his last mission before creating the 5-0 was in North Korea and that he lost his best friend there by capturing their target and that he heard his father being shot because that target had just been shot dead. As I was saying, he doesn't tell me anything about what he went through as a soldier. Sailor. Sailor, sorry. He only reveals a few parts of his previous life when we have a case that affects the military world closely."

"You know a lot more than most civilians, Detective. Believe me. On the other hand, I wonder how you could have known the name of a classified operation."

"Let's just say that on one of our cases, there was a leak of secret documents and when I opened one of the files, I saw Steve's picture on the front page and the name of the operation. Strawberry Field. And a picture of you too. Before he ripped it out of my hands with a face totally... Panicked?"

The doctor looked down with a slight sigh, which the police officer immediately noticed. Working with Steve, he had learned to pay attention to every detail, to the slightest gesture that could betray the cover of someone being questioned or hunted.

"You know why he reacted like that, don't you?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny."

Without controlling himself, Danny slammed his left fist on the bed on which he was sitting while the doctor continued to bandage his hand.

"That's crazy, Steve has the same habit of making me angry! I know it's top secret, but I need to know, you understand? How can I know the Steve I see every day if I don't know his past? Huh? Huh?"

Dr. Malaka stopped in his procedure and looked into his patient's eyes. They were filled with anger, seeking for explanations he couldn't have because of the sensitive nature of the information about his past. This detective Williams, whom he hardly knew, looked very much like one of his former colleagues, and this made him smile. Steve had totally rubbed off on him obviously! From the corner of his lips, he began to smile, clearly reviving Danny's anger, who preferred not to say anything to avoid regretting his words or actions.

"Can you give me your phone, Detective?"

He hesitated for a moment before changing his mind. Maybe the doctor had a good reason to ask him for such a thing? So he took it out of his back pocket and gave it to him, a skeptical look sculpting his face. David then turned it off and did the same with his before going to the door and closing the lock. Even more intrigued, he straightened up and put himself in a waiting position, something Steve had taught him when he felt oppressed or in danger. The doctor approached again and sat in front of him on the stool.

"What I'm about to tell you is top secret and I shouldn't even tell you, are you aware of that?"

"I know it," he confirmed by swallowing nervously. "This is considered high treason, but I can assure you that I will never tell anyone about it."

"Everyone can say that, but few people can bear such a burden. Especially when you are tortured for this information."

"If it makes you feel any better, I've already been... Tortured, and I never revealed any information."

Slowly and with difficulty, the doctor nodded and straightened up to take a better position to continue to treat the police officer's hand.

"2003. Afghanistan. There was this little village of a hundred inhabitants not far from the Mountains held by the Taliban. McGarrett took most of his information about the Uglies here. A family was always here to welcome him and he felt good with them. The man, Mahmed, had been enrolled in the Taliban in exchange for food and money for his family. His wife, Nessima cooked the best kabuli palaw of the country and their son Amin liked when McGarrett was home. Mahmed taught him Pashto and to help them, the Commander taught Amin what he had learned at school when he was his age."

Not seeing when the doctor was getting at and although he was listening carefully, he was beginning to lose patience. He had the impression that he had been fooled.

"One day, Mahmed contacted me because he had overheard that the number three of the Taliban was close to the village. As a High-Value Target, McGerratt gathered a team and they spread into the village to collect some information. But it was an ambush."

The ball in the stomach that Danny had been feeling for a few seconds intensified and he had to swallow again to counter nausea that was gradually invading him.

"The Taliban had heard that a mole was in their ranks but they did not know who and why. They then decided to pass on false information in the hope of finding this mole. When they discovered that Mahmed was informing American troops, the Uglies decided to... To make him an example."

Danny frowned and waited anxiously for the next part of the story. What could Steve have lived through that was so horrible that he refused to talk about it at all costs?

"They tied McGarrett up so that he could neither move nor scream and in front of his eyes, they shot his entire team in the head. When the Taliban understood that the whole village was corrupt, they decided to do the same with the hundred innocent people as a reprisal."

The policeman's eyes widened, both out of surprise and aversion to so much horror. He had already heard enough but he had to know absolutely what had happened in every detail. It was a real need for him to understand Steve's mind, to be able to penetrate this shell he had made to avoid facing this kind of situation again.

"They first killed the children, taking great care to rape the girls, then the women, before ending up with killing the men. And they kept Mahmed, Nessima and Amin as a final bouquet before shooting in McGarrett's two arms, at shoulder level. Far enough from any vital organ but precise enough to cause great damage."

Danny had no way of thinking anymore. He even had to hold back so as not to shed a tear because what he had heard was so cruel. If he was in a state of acute emotional distress, what must it have been like for Steve, who had experienced this and witnessed the massacre?

"Before we could get McGarrett back, two days had passed. When the rescue team arrived on the scene, the whole place smelled like a dead body and the Commander was in the middle of the villagers, in a pool of blood. He was dehydrated, sick and the wounds were infected. It took him three months to heal physically and even more to heal the mental wounds. If he ever had mentally healed from that."

It seemed logical; no matter how strong physically and mentally someone was the strongest man in the world, surviving the massacre of a village of a hundred souls left their mark and often they were indelible. They remained in the deepest part of their minds and returned by successive and regular assaults until driving their host mad and crazy.

"After this mission, McGarrett no longer felt really... At home among the NavySEALs. His Commander pulled some strings to have him transferred to the Navy Intel, a safer position and... Let's say more suitable. He had thought for weeks that the operation he had carried out had been based only on unverified information, so he wanted to gather as much information as possible before sending a team on the field, in order to avoid surprises or problems like those he had encountered. As I had decided to retire, I was the one who trained McGarrett for the job and he took my place when I left."

Danny couldn't believe it. He was on the verge of tears just trying to put himself in his brother's shoes. How could he live with such a burden without ever being allowed to talk about it? How could he have believed that all this was his fault? Because yes, in his place he would surely have thought that a thousand times.

"This is what happened during Operation Strawberry Field. Now you know."

In the name of the operation, Danny straightened up and gave Dr. Malaka a doubtful look. If all this were true, it explained Steve's fearful behavior when he heard that name in the case to find the SEALTeam six; it had awakened in Steve more than painful memories and perhaps he didn't want him to be aware of what he had experienced. That was why he remained secret when it came to talking about his past and only revealed the minimum when he had no choice.

"Is that... Is that why he has these tattoos on his shoulders? To... To hide his wounds?"

This was a question he was now asking himself, knowing that he had received significant injuries to both his shoulders. In general, when one suffered major trauma and had physical sequelae, people try to hide them at all costs. The doctor's long sigh told him that he was right.

"A month after returning to active duty, he requested express authorization to remove any brand from this operation. He used already existing patterns for this purpose but these had a completely different meaning for him. On one of his shoulders, he had part of the work of Alien Saga's artistic designer. But for him, it represented a face with pin-like safety glasses, a sign of his belonging to the NavySEAL. The pin pierced his mouth as if to say that despite everything that could be inflicted on him, he would not speak. Above this face, Ra's eye symbolized his new belonging to the intelligence unit, which is supposed to know and see everything. The equilateral triangle in which everything was located symbolized, in his opinion, the military hierarchy, a fair balance that he was trying to find at the time."

Danny imagined the drawing on his right shoulder, having contemplated it many times before that. It had always intrigued him to understand why he had made this tattoo of a guy from the Alien Saga knowing that he was openly criticizing his strong cinematographic tastes for this kind of film. It was ironic but now that he knew the reasons, everything was now perfectly clear.

"And... What about his left arm?"

"On his other arm, he had decided to pay tribute to this village that had helped him so much and that he had lost. Most of the inhabitants had hidden the fact of being Buddhist, a religion that was frowned upon in the Taliban era. Apart from Islam, no religion was really tolerated and everyone showed an apparent and unfailing devotion to this religion when in fact they were not Muslims."

Weakly, Danny nodded while thinking back to that other tattoo.

"If I remember correctly, it was a man sitting in a meditative position, like Buddha, with a Lotus flower underneath, right?"

Once again, the detective threw his head upside down.

"The man represents the village that had been decimated, in this position to pay tribute to the fact that they were Buddhist. The Lotus flower is the symbol of it but from my memories, he had explained that for him, this flower was the symbol of prosperity, purity but above all eternity. In India, it is also the flower of tolerance and acceptance of others, regardless of their religious affiliation. In the capital, New Delhi, there is a temple in the shape of this flower. It is a place of prayers intended to pay homage to God, no matter what this God is. Mahmed and Nessima had the dream that one day, religion would no longer be a pretext for war but on the contrary, would be a pillar of peace. That's why McGarrett did this tattoo."

A strong symbol Indeed. Nothing to do with everything he had imagined for eight long years. It was not out of envy or because he loved these symbols, it was a way for him to hide his pain while expressing without saying how much that pain had changed him. That was the meaning of his two tattoos: to forget what had happened without forgetting those people who had helped and supported him at the risk of their lives. Never forget where he came from and what he had experienced. That was who he was.

* * *

Near the ICU, there was another waiting room for families, even larger than the one in which they were crammed. Under the impulse of the surgeon who operated on Steve, a nurse came to pick them up in the emergency room to take them to this more comfortable and spacious place. It was also to free up the restroom for the medical and nursing staff who, understanding the situation more than anything else in the world, had decided not to take a break until the time was more opportune and above all not to disturb this close-knit family no matter what. Everyone knew the big 5-0 family at Queen's and even the new members of the hospital were quickly briefed by the older ones. It was a kind of respect for them not to disturb them when such an incident occurred.

Once in the big room, Rachel had enough lucidity to call Kamekona, Flippa and Nahele to bring them food. Not that the hospital's food was infamous, but she preferred to know that the whole crew could eat healthily. After about ten minutes, Grace appeared at the door, her eyes red, fogged up and swollen by the constant crying she could not control. A nurse in the emergency room had generously explained to the girl that they had all gone to a more suitable restroom, including Junior and Charlie.

"Grace!" Charlie cried out as he separated from his mother and ran into his sister's arms.

She kneeled down and hugged her brother tenderly, seeking his affection but above all his innocent comfort. This fraternal hug did her so much good, dissipating for a moment the inner evil that was eating away at her. Her mother immediately understood when she saw that something was wrong and her heart was tightened when she guessed that her own daughter was suffering. She said nothing but approached her two children, asking Charlie to join his uncles and aunt for a moment to talk to Grace. Both went out into the hallway so that the little blond head could not hear them, Rachel trying to reassure her daughter of her presence.

"I know that... That you're not fine, Grace. Do you want to tell me about it?" she asked in a sweet and reassuring tone.

The girl sighed for a long time, trying in vain to find the words. Her crying was again the most appropriate answer of the moment.

"Oh, honey."

It broke Rachel's heart, who immediately took her daughter in her arms and put her warm hands behind her back to try to calm her pain.

"He is so... So pale and so...", she began to explain between two tears. "It's not Uncle Steve, Mom. It can't be him..."

Unable to reassure her daughter, Rachel felt totally helpless and on the verge of tears herself.

"I couldn't... I couldn't stay there. I thought that... That I was strong but I'm not."

"Grace, let me tell you something", her mother started out, determined. "You're the strongest girl in the world, and you know why? Look in this room behind me."

Hesitant for a moment, Grace let her head pass over Rachel's shoulder and contemplated the scene in the room. Lou, Junior, Tani. All there surrounding Charlie with a smile, talking to him and playing with him.

"You're strong because you have a family that loves you. Your father loves you. Charlie loves you. I love you. Your uncles and aunts love you too. You're strong because even if something bad happens, we stay together. You are strong because you are surrounded by the most beautiful people there are. You're strong because you're my daughter. And nothing and no one can take that away from you."

Wrapped in so much love and truth, Grace tightened her grip on her mother and let herself be rocked by her light movements from left to right. They stayed five long minutes like this before the girl broke their hug.

"Danno is alone with Uncle Steve, Mom. He should not be alone."

"You're right. Can you take care of Charlie while I join your father and Uncle Steve?"

Not without difficulty, Grace nodded and indicated the room number where her favorite uncle was before entering the room to be greeted by her uncles and aunt and her little brother. Rachel observed everyone before heading to the ICU. She ran into Steve's nurse in the hallway and smiled at her before knocking on the door. She entered slowly, closing the door behind her before concentrating on the scene in front of her. At first sight unable to move or speak because of what she saw, she quickly realized that no one was in the room. Going beyond that, she started looking for her ex-husband in the bathroom before leaving and joining the office where she had just met a nurse a few minutes earlier.

"Excuse me?" she called a nurse who was coming back from one of the rooms. "I'm looking for my... Uh, Detective Danny Williams. He's supposed to be at Commander Steve McGarrett's bedside."

Visibly embarrassed, the nurse blushed with shame and lowered her head.

"Yes, it's my fault, I'm sorry. I didn't have time to tell you that he had gone down to the emergency room to have his hand checked again."

Rachel understood very well that this young woman was not really supposed to take care of all this, she already had all these patients in intensive care and it alone was exhausting. She couldn't think of everything.

"Listen... Sarah", she began by reading her badge in her gown. "It's all right, I fully understand the fact that you can't think of everything or be everywhere. Believe me, I will. Thank you for this information and I will let you continue your work."

She smiled at her and took her phone in her hand while Sarah went back to another room and sent a message to Danny telling her where everyone was so he wouldn't worry. Once done, she returned to Steve's room. This time, she focused more on him, the friend life had given her, the uncle Grace and Charlie idolized. This long roar from the artificial ventilation made her so uncomfortable but she had to get used to it quickly if she had to stay at her bedside for a while. At least to recollect. She took the chair next to the bed, the one Danny had used before her, and sat down, contemplating the sailor's pale and marked features. She sighed for a long time, as long as the exhalation induced by this damned machine, embracing her fingers with tears in her eyes.

"It looks like you're in very bad shape. Worse than two years ago, when Daniel gave you half of his liver."

She smiled stupidly, relentlessly thinking back to her ex-husband's bad mood when he woke up after the surgery, long before Steve opened his eyes; by that time, he had started taking bets on how long it would take Steve to get back to the hospital after being thrown out.

* * *

A voice, soft, feminine, trembling voice. As if the person was afraid or... Or crying. Or both. The sensations he had were absolutely weird. On one hand, he was not in any pain at all despite the suffering he would have had to face at the sight of his last memories and on the other hand, he was panicked at not being able to move. He felt like a prisoner of his own body, locked up for eternity without ever having the possibility to move even an inch. The last time he felt so repressed was when he faced his worst nightmare. Just thinking about it, Steve had a stomachache. But it was the truth.

Once again, a blinding light began to shine before him, making him lower his guard and close his eyes. A violent smell of humidity mixed with oxidation approached his nostrils and an icy sensation covered him. Once this white veil disappeared, he opened his eyes again and realized that he was in a room he barely recognized. His body was in the middle of the room, tied to a chair at the wrists and ankles, visibly unconscious. And drugged. He looked around him, trying to remember where these images, sounds and smells came from. It didn't mean anything to him.

He suddenly jumped when he heard himself screaming, reawakening to the harsh reality when a door in front of his body had just been opened, revealing a vile character he had preferred to bury deep inside him.

 _"You're up", the voice noticed._

Wo Fat. He now remembered and just thinking about it made him goosebump. That was how he had been able to last so long in the special forces; every hard blow, every mission for which a normal human being would have killed himself for seeing what he had seen or done what he had done, he had placed it in his deepest mind and he had moved on. Without thinking about it, without having to fall apart. But what Wo Fat had done that day, what he had said, had marked him forever and for the first time after several years of taking it, he had fallen apart. He remembered Danny telling him that it was because of the drugs he was being injected, a kind of hallucinogenic substance that made him believe that his father was still alive when he hadn't admitted that this had been his way of fighting his worst enemy; rewrite the scenario for a time he would have liked to have been different was his way of dealing with all the torture, all the vices.

 _"Let's begin"._

 _His neutral and impassive voice had frozen his blood despite the cold he was already feeling with the drugs running through his veins. Without a word, he followed him with his eyes, Wo Fat going to his left to take the first bucket he could find. Behind him, he felt an uncomfortable female presence, ready to do anything to serve the person who recruited him. He kept an eye on him without even opening his mouth or parting his lips. Strangely enough, he felt his body stumbling, shaking as he dripped with sweat._

Definitely one of the effects of the product entering his bloodstream. It made him sick of not being able to do anything. He didn't even have the strength to fight even if he knew what was going to happen. He watched him fill the bucket with water with the help of a pipe.

 _That's when he understood. He understood what was going to happen and was already preparing for it. He was about to get waterboarded. As a NavySEAL, he learned to resist all forms of torture and this was one of them. Among other things. And he'd never cracked before. But what did Wo Fat want? The last time he captured, sequestered and tortured him was in North Korea to get information about Shelburne. But now that everything had been revealed, what else did he want? But even before finding a logical explanation for all this masquerade, a damp cloth came to rest on his face and his head was violently thrown back. Within two seconds, he prepared to face what he was going to have to endure and began a mental countdown. Very quickly, his mouth and nose were sprayed with water, dripping slowly. It first entered his nose, then his mouth when he opened it to try to extract the minimum amount of oxygen he could absorb. The water was cold and probably not drinkable, but he kept counting while reflecting on Wo Fat's motivations._

He would have liked to be able to intervene, to tell this body that did not belong to him that he would be fine, that his friends, his family would come and get him. But he couldn't. Even if he knew it, this man tied to a chair did not yet know it and that was where his concern lay. These visions in which he saw his father still alive, imagining a life other than the one he knew, with people whose behavior was contrary to what they were showing with him, all this had marked him forever and he had continued to have these flashes several months after that unforgettable day.

 _8\. 9. 10. The water stopped flowing and the cloth on his face withdrew, allowing him to stand up and spit out all the water he had accumulated in his mouth, throat and lungs. He coughed. For a long time. He almost felt like he was going to throw up at some point. But he was much stronger than that. He was in pain everywhere, but he didn't say anything. Yet. He had to say something. Now._

 _"You're never gonna break me", was the only thing he could say to try to destabilize Wo Fat._

 _He turned again to the makeshift sink on his left, taking the pipe back in hand to fill the bucket a second time._

 _"Behavioral engineering works, Steve", he said calmly. "It just takes time."_

 _He stopped pouring water, approaching the one he was holding prisoner._

 _"Now, tell me where's my father."_

 _So that was what Wo Fat wanted. To know where his father was. But why? Why? Wasn't he dead on the mission, just like his mother?_

Steve remembered that moment when he realized that this scumbag wasn't going to stop even knowing he was going to tell the truth. Because even if he had known where his father was, he would never have been able to tell him. On one hand, because he suspected that when he was about to give him this information, Wo Fat would do whatever it took to kill him or keep him alive as long as it took to give him more information. On the other hand, because he had to buy time for his team to find him. Because yes, he had dragged things out that day, knowing that Danny, Lou, Kono and Chin would find him using sometimes unorthodox means. And despite his drugged state, he was already preparing a plan to counter Wo Fat.

 _We had to find an easy answer. An answer he had to wait for but without really believing it._

 _"I don't know."_

 _The water mixing with the sweat dripping down his chest made him want to vomit even more than the torture itself. Damn drugs._

 _"You expect me to believe that?"_

 _Of course not, he was never going to believe it because it wasn't the answer he was expecting. Why did he have to know where his father was when he thought he was dead? That's what his mother told him, though. But in hindsight, Doris had faked her own death for twenty long years, had lied to him for years so one more lie wouldn't have hurt him any more. He was sure she lied._

 _"No. But it's the truth."_

 _That was indeed the truth, since he did not know that Wo fat's father was still alive. He didn't even know his name, so to speak. Even using his contacts, he had not been allowed access to the mission file and his relationship with his mother was so complicated that he couldn't give her an appointment and ask her "hey mom. Tell me, what was that mission in which you were supposed to kill Wo Fat's father but in reality you made a mistake and killed his mother? Ah, and what has become of the father since then? Is he dead too? Is he still alive? Where?" It was just impossible._

Steve could only watch the young woman behind his body put the soaked cloth back on his face and swing his head back at Wo Fat's whistle as he poured water again to make him break. He remembered counting again, well beyond ten seconds this time. He kept asking the same question. Over and over again. Twice. Three times. All this while he was thinking about how to get out of this impasse.

 _After the fourth time repeating the same thing, he had to think of a new strategy to save time but also to find a way to know his father's position. He believed that this person was dead, it was a turn of phrase used by his mother, Wo Fat believed that he was alive. Either the latter was mistaken, or his mother had lied to him yet another time. Probably to protect him, which he thought was noble. Perhaps she knew at that time the degree of determination Wo fat would use to find him and she did not want to drag her son into this story. What was the special connection between Doris and him? He had already rejected his potential fraternal bond through the DNA test, which Max had run three times to be sure of these results, so what?_

Steve remembered the fifth time Wo Fat had put him through waterboarding. He used to count to ten, this time he had to count to twenty and thought he was dying suffocated. It was a feeling he had hated and one of the most feared as a NavySEAL. Once the blindfold was removed from his face, he had to pull himself together several times to expel all the water that had invaded his respiratory system but also to regain a more than sufficient and efficient breath to absorb oxygen.

 _"This can end if you just tell me what I want to know", Wo Fat said, determined and in a cold tone._

 _"If you're gonna kill me", he started, staring at Wo Fat from below, "just do it."_

 _Steve wasn't afraid of death. He had welcomed it many times during his missions and once again would not change anything; he would not speak. Not that he would have done it but because he didn't have the information he was looking for. Another person probably had it but hadn't told him._

 _"Steve", he started as he stood up in his makeshift chair, "if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it long ago. Think about it."_

 _Looking back, Wo Fat was not wrong; they had met, fought many times and he never killed him despite the various opportunities to do so. But he didn't do it. Why? Why? He didn't know that. And for that, he was slightly grateful to him. Perhaps he could then create a diversion to save him more time. He trusted his team to find him in a few hours. After all, she did it well in North Korea, so, in Hawaii. It was not possible in his mind to have already left the island, quite the contrary. This would facilitate the research._

 _"Okay", he said, nodding slightly, almost whispering. "You want to know where your father is, yeah? Ask Doris."_

 _To this information, Wo Fat remained marbled and impassive. As if to show no emotion, no breach in front of him who was tied to a rotten chair and struggling for his survival. It was as if he seemed surprised without showing it that Steve knew anything about his relationship with his mother._

 _"I know about her trips to Colorado to come see you. You should have asked her when you had the chance."_

 _This time, Wo Fat stepped forward and relaxed his vigilance for a micro-second by lowering his eyes._

 _"I asked our mother."_

 _OUR MOTHER? Steve immediately turned his head to the understanding of these two words and looked into his executioner's eyes. What did he mean by that? OUR MOTHER? Why did he say that? To provoke him? To make him angry? Revive it? To plunge him into a state he refused to meet again?_

 _"She said she didn't know."_

Of course Doris said that. If his father had died, it was out of the question for Wo Fat to know where he was buried and if he had survived, it was even more important for him not to know where he was held prisoner. At the time, he didn't know the whole story. All he knew was that Shelburne, his mother, had killed Wo Fat's mother by accident instead of his father and that, out of revenge, the little boy who had grown up had decided to attack the family she had built with her husband and that to protect John, he and his sister, she had faked her death in a car accident. But at that very moment when he was locked up, he didn't know that his mother had a very high level of guilt because of this act and that she had decided to raise Wo Fat as her own son until the CIA separated them. That was why he called Doris his mother; because she had been the mother figure of his first years of life.

 _Perhaps he had heard wrong? After all, he was drugged, tortured and had water in his ears too, so the sounds were harder to get to him. Maybe Wo Fat said "YOUR MOTHER" and not "OUR MOTHER"? But if he had really said what he heard..._

 _"What did you say?"_

 _Washing his hands as he could, Wo Fat straightened his head and looked at his prisoner with a satisfied look, almost with a smile on his face._

 _"You just said "our mother". What do you mean by "our mother"?"_

 _This time, the satisfied smile turned into a dubious face. Was he surprised by the question?_

 _"She's not your mother", Steve explained forcibly, stunned by this allegation. "I ran the DNA, okay? I ran the DNA."_

 _The smile on Wo Fat's face gradually reappeared, to the point that Steve became angry. How could he smile or even laugh in such a situation?_

 _"She's not your mother! Alright!"_

 _At the same time, he nodded to his partner behind the chair and he soon felt a sharp sting followed by a pain in his right shoulder near his shoulder blade. What had she done? What had she injected?_

 _"What are you giving me? What, what are you giving me..."_

 _The images around him became a blur, as if he had suffered a shock affecting his senses and especially his vision._

 _"Something to help you tell the truth."_

It was the same feeling. The one he had been through that day with the waterboard repeatedly. The same feeling of not being able to breathe, not being able to move, defending oneself. This feeling of a tight heart, beating at a thousand miles an hour, beating the chamade in his chest when he felt like he was having a heart attack...

* * *

Immersed in her thoughts and non-verbal prayers, Rachel jumped when she heard an alarm sounding nearby. So she opened her eyes, trying to determine what was going on. A first look at Steve to reassure herself; he had not moved an inch. So she looked up higher at the monitors; several numbers blinking red, proof that something alarming was happening. At the same time, two nurses entered the room in a fury that made her get up from her chair.

"What's going on?" she asked in a broken and shaky voice, worried about her friend who was Charlie's godfather, something she had decided with her ex-husband when she separated from Stan and told her that their son was not his but Danny's.

At first, they said nothing and tried to determine why these alarms had started screaming continuously.

"Alice, page Dr. Yen. Now!" Sarah cried out.

"What's going on!" Rachel asked a second time, panicked by what she had just heard.

"Commander McGarrett is in tachycardia, his oxygen level is dropping and his blood pressure is going the same way. In other words, his body is in shock", she explained as she took his file to find an explanation.

The young woman had difficulty understanding the situation, but in view of the nurse's agitation, it must have been serious enough to call the doctor urgently.

"What does that mean?"

Sarah was about to answer when Steve's doctor entered the room and rushed to his patient's bedside without a word.

"O2 stats at 85%, BP at 84 over 58 and dropping, heart rate at 135", Sarah summarized the situation, proving that she was very experienced in her field.

Taking this information into account, he took his penlight and opened Steve's eyes to carry out a thorough visual examination.

"Anaphylactic shock?" Sarah asked as she saw what the doctor was examining.

"No. His pupils are in constant fast motion but they are not contracted. His body seems to reject the treatment."

Dr. Chang Yen straightened up, asking the nurse to inject Steve with a dose of valium to calm his vitals before focusing more on Rachel, completely numb from the scene in front of her eyes.

"I need to speak to his next of kin, immediately. His name is... Daniel Williams?" he said when he read Steve's file that he had taken up in his hands.

"He... He's in the emergency room. To... To get his hand checked at", Rachel explained, stuttering.

"I need to talk to him urgently. Otherwise, Commander McGarrett could die."

These simple words froze her blood, bringing the first tears of the day to her eyes.

* * *

 **A/N:** **So, what do you think? I tried to use the tv-show as often as possible but for that Operation Strawberry Field whole explanation (Alex's tattoos included), I used my imagination to find a very good explanation for them: We all saw how fearful Steve was when Danny told the name of the Operation (back in season 2 when they were investigating the killing of members of SEALTeam 6). so it must have been very dramatic/difficult for the sailor to even think about it. Right?**

 **Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter but please don't kill me for this cliffhanger!**

 **I promise I will talk about Steve's presumed phobia (Danny's investigation) during the next chapter ;-)**

 **What are your thoughts about it by the way? I am curious!**


	7. Match

**Hello everybody!**

 **I know, I know... It's been too long since the last update but I got a lot of things on my plate these past few months and I needed to take care of this.** **I still don't have enough time to write much, but I have done my best to satisfy your expectations and requests since the last chapter.** **I find that this one is of lower quality than the previous ones but I promise to make up for it with the next one, which will be a little more technical.** **You will understand by reading this page!**

 **I hope you will like it and if you think you won't follow this chapter, please go read the story back to chapter 1 if needed. Feel free to review after having read as well.**

 **Have a nice reading and see you for the next chapter (I am currently working on it for the rest of the week).**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 7**

"What do you mean by he's gonna die?" Rachel asked with a trembling voice.

The doctor, while examining Steve with laying his stethoscope on his bandaged torso, answered quickly, although focussed on what he was doing.

"His body is rejecting the medication keeping him in a medically induced coma. Think about being completely paralyzed, unable to move an inch of your own body, to open your eyes, to breathe on your own but you are very well aware of what is going on around you, with your senses, other than your eyesight, working."

Rachel indeed imagined it, trading her place with his friend, just for a second. Just to know what she would do. After some time, she concluded that she surely would panic.

"Here's what happened; he had a panic attack when he realized that he couldn't move or breathe. Now, excuse me, I would like you to go out of the room so I can check on the Commander, please."

The young woman nodded, taking her phone in hand to text her ex-husband to come quickly into the restroom, thinking that the physician might talk to him after what happened. She then joined the group and explained the whole situation, hoping that it would soon settle down.

"Is Uncle Steve okay?" Charlie asked with innocence as he didn't understand all the words.

"Uncle Steve is getting a hard time to get to sleep, Charlie", Grace tried to explain as best as possible with words he could understand.

"Should we read him a bedtime story too then?"

Almost instantly, the room overflowed with laughter and mockery as everyone imagined Charlie reading a story to the great Commander McGarrett to help him sleep. At least, that moment was a chance to decompress, to think of something other than Steve's life in danger.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, Charlie. It's just..."

No words were found to explain the situation to a seven-year-old boy. Especially when it came to very hard and painful scenes.

"Uncle Steve is very sick and he needs a lot of sleep with the help of medication. But uh... But he is... Allergic to these sleepy medications. The doctors can't find one tolerated by his body".

It was the only way to explain what Steve was going through right now. Even if he was not allergic to the drugs, his intolerance to many of them could be likened to allergy. It was just that they made him sicker than he was and this was absolutely no time to see him even weaker and sicker. It could even kill him if it continued.

"Oh. If they don't find these medications, it means he can stay awake then."

"Yes, Charlie. But Uncle Steve is too sick to stay awake. He would be in pain. And if he's in too much pain, his body might not be able to handle it."

"So... He's... Dying? Just like me when I was sick?"

"Yes, Charlie. Danno had to give his bone marrow to heal you. But it's not that simple with Uncle Steve. His sickness makes him... Too vulnerable."

"Okay."

The little boy was of a very curious nature, which was often a good thing. But when it came to explaining an adult situation to such a young child, it quickly became a puzzle to make him understand how serious the situation was. Perhaps with what had just been said, Charlie was afraid, but his innocence and optimism were infallible.

"He's gonna be okay. It's Uncle Steve, he's SuperSEAL!" he said, raising his arms with a big smile.

Everyone started smiling a second time in less than five minutes, which had not happened since the incident earlier in the day. In the second that followed, the door opened wide and a policeman appeared, panting and soaked in sweat. Very quickly, Rachel came to his side and helped him sit on the couch while Lou brought him a big glass of water. Everyone quickly noticed his new bandage in his hand but no one dared to talk about it for the moment.

"What was so urgent? I turned off the phone to talk to the doctor and when I turned it back on, I saw your message", Danny explained once again.

"Uh... I think it's better if you..."

She didn't have time to finish her sentence that the doctor who examined Steve, Dr. Yen, entered the room and suddenly made Danny stand up. He stood in front of him and before he started talking, he asked him what was going on.

"What I feared has happened; Commander McGarrett does not tolerate the medication he is given to keep him in an induced coma. That's why I wanted to talk to you as soon as possible. Can we have more... Privacy?"

"If you don't mind, I'm his next of kin, but we're his family. All of us. So if you have something to say, I'd rather it be here and now. No offense."

The doctor understood the situation perfectly and did not take it as a personal attack. He nodded and took a deep breath.

"We have to stop the medication now, otherwise it could kill him. But unfortunately, this means that his body will suffer more trauma and his recovery time will be extended. Nor can we remove him from the ventilation for another day or two or more and we are not sure that his body will be able to fight the infection properly in such a situation."

"What do you mean exactly? In English please."

Of course, the doctor did what he could, but the situation was such that it was impossible for the Ohana to concentrate to summarize and make the distinction. Dr. Yen had to make an effort to be understood.

"Commander McGarrett must both fight infection and remain under artificial ventilation until his lung is healed and surgical shock has passed while being fully conscious. However, we don't know if his body will be able to resist the pain, nor do we know how he will react to the ventilation", he admitted. "Too much shock could lead to the loss of the fight against infection, if not death."

Death. These words got stuck in Danny's throat to the point of almost getting sick. So, a single bullet was enough to do so much damage? Why? Why?

"And... And you can't boost his immune system, I don't know... A plasma transfusion or something like that?"

"This could be a possibility, indeed. But finding a suitable donor as soon as possible can be complicated, especially in this case. The Commander is B positive and only 15% of the island's population has this blood type."

"I am a match, doctor", Danny said. "We already share a liver, so I can give him some plasma."

"I would love to, Detective, but given the fact that your body suffered a trauma very recently as well, we can't take your blood or your plasma. I am sorry.

"I am O positive", Rachel continued. "I can donate my blood, right?"

"Indeed, it could help. We need to do a full test to know that but there's a big chance. Anyone in here could eventually be a match with the Commander?"

After a long silence, no one answered. Junior and Tani were both A negative and Lou was A positive.

"Mary", Danny started in the middle of nowhere. "His sister, she must be in Hawaii within..."

He looked at his watch to know what time it was and he immediately started insulting himself.

"She must be here right now... Damnit. His sister is a match, isn't she?"

"There is a higher chance, yes. If she's okay with it, I can check her to figure this out. I am going to check to registration to find another match but it is promising. I am going to check on McGarrett again but I will ask a nurse to come to take your blood", he explained, talking to Rachel.

While he was ready to get out of the room, Grace stood up and stopped him.

"What about me?"

Surprised by this momentum, the girl's parents immediately came to her side to try to understand her gesture as the physician turned to the family members again.

"If my father is B positive and my mother O positive, it means that I'm B positive, right? So I can give to Uncle Steve my blood, can't I?"

"Grace, you're too young to donate blood", Danny tried to explain it to her.

Not having reached the age of eighteen for the time being, the girl could not give blood.

"How old are you, young lady?" the doctor asked anyway.

"I turn eighteen in a few months."

He nodded again and blocked his gaze on the relatives around Grace.

"Is either of you a registered donor at the Blood Bank of Hawaii?"

"We both are", Rachel confirmed, not knowing what he meant. "But how is it changing the fact that our daughter is not old enough to donate?"

"It changes everything, actually. If you are registered at the BBH and your daughter wants to donate, you just have to fill a consent form and give an ID confirming that she is 16 or more but unable to legally donate. In that case, this young lady has a free pass to exceptionally donate her blood."

"Mom, Dad, I want to donate my blood to Uncle Steve", she said, turning back to both her parents. "I want to help."

Danny bit his lower lip when he heard his daughter not call him Danno but Dad, which was already rare in itself but showed how much she wanted to do it.

"Grace, we don't even know if you're a match, sweetheart."

"So we do as they will do with Mom in this case. They take a little blood from me to see if I'm a match and if I am, then I give my blood."

"That's my girl, Grace," Lou then threw, showing his fist to his daughter-in-law, who immediately put hers on his own.

Danny and Rachel looked into each other's eyes and understood that they had no choice; they had to give something to Grace again, but at least it was for a good cause.

"Can I give Uncle Steve my blood too?" A little voice called out to everyone.

Surprised, everyone turned to Charlie, whom almost everyone had forgotten in the turmoil.

"Monkey, you're far too young to give yours," Danny explained to his son by kneeling at his height and holding him in his arms. "But I think you can do something else for Uncle Steve and it might help him knock out the disease."

"What is it?"

"Your beautiful magic drawings."

Almost immediately, Charlie's disappointed face lit up and appeared with a gigantic smile.

"Is that true?"

"Yes, I'm sure your wonderful drawings will give Uncle Steve a lot of courage and love and it will help him beat the infection. I am sure".

"I'm sure of it too," Grace admitted with her most beautiful smile.

"Me too," Rachel spoke before others "me too" burst into the room.

This scene even managed to put a smile on the doctor's face when everyone had put themselves around the young boy to comfort him. He had never seen such a close-knit and united family in adversity, especially in young cases like Grace and Charlie. On the one hand, he envied them for being part of such a beautiful family, but on the other hand, he wondered how everyone felt deep down about the situation and especially how they did not want to show these negative emotions to the younger ones. This was probably the most difficult thing to do. And as he walked through the doorway and went back to his patients, Rachel approached Danny and put her head on his shoulder, as she used to do when he was stressed.

"I go find Mary at the airport. You can't drive with one hand", she explained, knowing that he was completely exhausted.

He sighed, looking at his banded hand. What a stupid idea to his this freaking wall! It seemed the best option at the time but now, he regretted it bitterly.

"Please? I... I'm gonna stay with Steve. In case he wakes up."

"Go back next to him. I bring Mary to you."

"You, uh... Can you take care of Joan too? Mary said that she was bringing her. I know I ask a lot from you, but..."

"Say no more", she stopped him. "Charlie will be thrilled to see her. I think he likes her", she whispered in his ear.

Danny couldn't help but smile. A combination of Williams' blood and McGarrett's mind, no way! But they were indeed so cute together!

"I may need to take your blood first for the testing", Sarah, the nurse said, not asking her to follow. Once done, she came for her daughter.

"Grace? Can you follow me, please?" Sarah, the nurse, asked.

She inhaled deeply before following the nurse into a private room.

"Do you feel better now?" she demanded as she prepared everything she needed for the blood checking.

"A little. But I can't get this image out of my head", she admitted, talking about when she saw Steve for the first time an hour ago.

"This is all normal, trust me. But you are brave. You will get through this."

"Thanks. So... How is it gonna work?"

"Oh, uh... First, I will take some of your blood to test it, so we can know for sure if you are indeed a match. Then the rest of the blood will be taken for further tests about whether or not you can donate. If you prefer, we want to be sure that you are perfectly healthy for this blood donation."

"And if I am a match?"

"If you are, the doctor will tell you and I come back to take much more blood and it will be given to your Uncle."

Grace nodded. There were many information and so less time to think about everything.

"I have never seen such a young girl react as you did in the restroom. Not everyone would have had the balls to volunteer."

"And yet, barely an hour ago, I was petrified when I saw my Uncle in this bed", she remembered. "I... I couldn't bear it."

"Everyone has weaknesses, including McGarrett. He hates hospital."

"Everyone hates them."

"To the point of being knocked out by his colleagues because he didn't want to be checked out?"

Grace smiled as Sarah slid the needle into her arm, collecting 4 tubes of blood for the primary compatibility tests but also to check if the girl was healthy enough in the possibility of donating her blood."

"You seem to know him. Uncle Steve, I mean."

"This is a hospital with a military base not far from here, half of the medical staff comes from this world. Including me."

"Were you a nurse in the army?"

"Not at all. I was in transmissions. Coded messages, calls, information given on the battlefield... Everything went through me."

"And... Why did you stop? If it's not too intrusive."

"Let's say that one day, my team and I were ambushed and... I couldn't go back there. Too many bad memories, too many flashbacks. Today, I prefer saving lives rather than seeing death close to me."

Grace could feel the nurse's discomfort and did not prefer to push the cap too far. As she said, too many bad memories.

"When will we know if I'm... When I can help Uncle Steve?"

"The analyses will be sent to the laboratory and your blood will be tested as soon as possible. We will probably have the results in... An hour at the most, I think."

"You didn't answer my question by the way."

"Which one?"

"Did you know Uncle Steve before today?"

"We have already met on some of his missions indeed. Last time I heard about him, he was tied up and dragged into the infirmary by his teammates", she explained, trying not to laugh about it.

Thanks to this, she could not hold back her laughter by imagining the scene. The nurse was right, Steve really didn't like hospitals or infirmaries!

* * *

On the other side of the city center, Rachel was parking the car near the airport, ready to catch up with Mary and Joan. She had brought Charlie with him, trying to get him out of this stressful place they were all in. A seven-year-old boy should not be placed in such a situation.

"Mama?"

"Yes, monkey?"

"Do you really think my drawings can help him?"

"You don't?"

The little kid never answered back. He was highly perturbated by the whole thing. Once Rachel was parked, she turned around to talk very seriously with her son. She could see that he was not in his best shape.

"Uncle Steve is very sick. You know that, right?"

"Yes."

"Seeing your drawings, seeing that you care about him, it will cheer him up. It will give him the strength to fight the infection for sure. That is why they are magic. Just seeing them makes you feel better already."

"Are we going to do a lot of drawings with Joan then?"

"As much as you want, dear. I promise", she said with a smile. "Are we going to get Mary and Joan now?"

The boy smiled and unbuckled the best securing him, ready to go see the one he's shy around. He followed his mother in the crowded alley of the airport, tracking Steve's sister. He was always excited when she was around because almost every time, they spent a day or two together because Mary wanted some privacy or be with her brother Steve. Rachel was pleased all the time, babysitting the young girl along with her two children. The third time she had taken care of Joan, she had spotted her in Charlie's bed, both sleeping soundly. She had explained that she had a very bad dream and her son had taken care of her the whole night because she was scared to go back to sleep. Barely three years old and they were already on each other's hands. And it never faded after this. Almost four years had passed and it hadn't changed, they liked each other very much.

"Joan!"

Young Charlie let go of Rachel's hand and ran away through the little crowd just when he spotted her. They hugged while both mums finally greeted each other.

"How is Steve?" Mary immediately asked very seriously.

"Uh... It is not looking good. He's having a hard time with the medication helping him with the induced coma. His primary doctor is looking for a match with him."

"A match? He needs another transplant?"

"No, no! Sorry! Uh... A plasma transfusion might help him fight the infection. As his body can't focus on this part because he can't stay asleep, he needs some help. Danny can't donate his blood right now so they are testing Grace and me. And you if you want and when we are in the hospital."

"I uh... I can't donate my blood right now actually. I've been anemic for a few months and I'm taking medication to regulate all this. It is against the rules to give blood under these conditions", she explained while they all walked out of the airport for the parking lot.

"Oh. I am sorry to hear this. Are you okay now?"

"I'm getting there but some days are really hard. Especially when our bad days come!"

"I hear you. I hope I can help Steve. Or Grace. He's been there for us so many times I can't even count. I want to return the favor if possible. Even once", she admitted with her English accent.

"Mama, can we go do our magical drawings now?" Charlie asked her mother, not letting go of Joan's left hand.

"First of all, we are going back to the hospital so that Mary can see Uncle Steve, then we have to wait for the results from the doctor. After that, if I can't help Uncle Steve, we go home with Joan so you both can do these wonderful drawings. Is it okay?"

"It is okay", the young boy confirmed. "Can we order pizza tonight? Please?"

"We'll talk about this later but right now, hospital."

Once in the car all buckled up, Rachel drove back and within twenty minutes, they were all in the family room.

"Mary, meet Junior and Tani. Kiddos, Steve's little sister, Mary."

"It's a pleasure to meet you", Tani first answered.

"Although it would have been better in other circumstances", Junior added, feeling some tension in the room.

"Pleasure is all mine. Nice to see you too, guys", Mary continued, hugging Grace and Lou. "I guess Danny is with Steve?"

"Where else would it be?"

"I don't know, maybe chasing the guy who did this?"

"Oh, he already did. According to Jerry, he promised to kill him in the most painful way if McGarrett dies."

"I almost feel sorry for this dude!"

The whole group laughed a little bit before coming back to a serious tone.

"Can I go see my brother?"

"The nurse might want to take your blood first", Lou said.

"I am in the same position as Danny; I can't donate my blood just right now."

She didn't explain why but everyone understood her position while Rachel went out with her.

"Do you know what happened? Danny was... He didn't explain everything on the phone."

"I don't know the whole story either but apparently, they were chasing some bad guys and Steve being faster than Danny, they split. And when he finally was able to catch up with him, he was lying in a pool of blood. That's all I know. I guess it was really bad. I've never seen Danny so messed up."

Rachel remembered perfectly well when she was pregnant of Grace, when her husband at the time just lost his partner. He was out of it for months but now? It was like a part of his soul was in that bed with Steve.

"Here's the room. I let you now. I can't... I can't see him like this right now."

Mary nodded and let Rachel go back to the bigger room as she used all her mental strength to open the door separating her from her older brother. Once done, a loud but stable beeping came to her ears, reassuring her on how her brother was. This feeling faded within ten seconds after she started seeing the bed and the man inside. Her brother was just a weak form being attached to a lot of machines, with tubes and wires everywhere she could put her eyes on.

"Danny."

Surprised, not having heard her come inside, he turned around and almost immediately stood up to hug her friend. They were both crying because of the shock.

"I am sorry. I should have been there to help him in that shooting..."

"Don't. Don't blame yourself. You were there to save him, that is all that matters right now. So, thank you."

"You don't understand, Mary. I wasn't there when he got shot. Alright?" he started his explanation with a very low voice. "I asked him to go after this dude because I couldn't follow his steps and he is in that bed because I wasn't there to back him up."

"Danny. Stop this mess. I don't know you as much as my brother but what I know for sure is that you saved his life. Again. You were there when he needed you. And you are here right now. Guilt is not something you should be concerned about. He needs us to get better. Okay?"

After long seconds of reflection, Danny figured that Mary was right. Steve didn't need all this guilt, but rather his unwavering support. They may not get along well from time to time, especially when it came to their work, but they had been friends since the beginning of their partnership. They were like dogs and cats but each needed the other, their specialties, to succeed. Steve and his tracking skills, his determination never to back down, including when necessary, his daredevil nature that exacerbated Danny. On the other hand, the police officer was more pragmatic, more rigorous in following the law but always ready to follow McGarrett to the other side of the world just to get his six. They were both crazy in a way; the completely crazy guy but also the one who was following him. That was their friendship, like a non-blood brotherhood.

"I uh... I give you some time alone with him. You probably need it", he said after a few minutes. "We are all in the family room."

"Thank you", she whispered, hugging him before he was out of the large medical room.

She sat on the very hard plastic chair Danny had used before her, allowing herself to pass her left hand in his hair, something she was used to do when her daughter was unwell. She could feel his freezing skin under her fingers, contrasting with the fever he was having. She could guess it by the long and profuse drops of sweat running across his forehead and cheeks despite the wet towel placed at the top of his face. His right hand was slack when she took it in hers, squeezing slightly, afraid that she could worsen his injuries anytime. The steady rhythm of the mechanical ventilation was stressing him but in a way, it reminded her that her brother was alive. Seriously injured but he was in the middle of the battle to get better. It should take time but deep down, she was hopeful.

A knock on the door got her out of her thoughts when a nurse entered the room to check on him.

"You are... His sister, right? Detective Williams told us you should be here very soon."

"Uh... Yes. I am Mary, Steve's baby sister. How is he? And don't sugar coat it, please."

"Dr. Yen, his primary doctor had to take him off the medications because his body can't tolerate them at all. We are hoping to find a way to help him with the infections while completely aware and conscious of what is happening. It's not the best course of action but it is the only choice that we have."

"He's been intolerant for a long as I can remember. He's rarely sick on the other hand. But when he is..."

"It's something huge", the nurse finished.

"Exactly. He never does things half."

Sarah smiled a bit while checking out all the IVs and machines, careful with all the bandages on his torso.

"To tell you the truth, he's lucky. The bullet did a lot of damage, including in his heart. One inch further and the story would have ended differently", she spoke the truth.

"What's the damage?"

"The bullet shattered his sternum and a couple of ribs on the impact despite the bullet-proof vest. When it continued its path, it severed his right lung and nicked the pulmonary artery before stopping near the heart. The muscle around the vital organ was irritated in the process and he went into a cardiac tamponade, which had been taken care of very quickly. The medications he's taking for his liver transplant and his radiation poisoning have weakened his immune system, not allowing his body to fight properly. That is why he's on a vent; his lungs and heart are too much exerted to do their respective jobs."

"But he's uh... He's gonna be okay, isn't he?"

"If we can find a solution to help him at the end of the day, he has a greater chance to make it, indeed. But I can't tell you much about this part, I am just a nurse. His doctor might be able to tell you more."

"Thank you. Sarah."

She smiled again and left Mary alone, closing the door after her. She felt desperate. She didn't say a word but something came to mind shortly after the explanation. Radiation poisoning? She hadn't recall talking about it with her brother at all. She knew what it was, of course, but for how long he was hiding this to her?

Five minutes later, she was out of the room, not able to handle the situation and the tension much longer. As soon as she reached the door of the room, Danny understood and lead her on the couch, with Junior giving her some water.

"Were you aware of this... Poison thing?"

The police officer didn't answer for a while, trying to process the question.

"He never told you, did he?"

She shook her blood, trying not to cry in front of the others.

"A couple years ago, he had to take care of a dirty bomb. That's how he's been caught with a low radiation poisoning. The risk of long-term damage is very low but as it was shortly after the liver transplant, the doctors wanted to play to save road with this."

"But why he never told me? I am his sister!"

"There are a lot of things you don't know about him, even as a little sister. We all don't know everything. Maybe he wanted your relationship to stay the way it was and not being awkward. I don't know. Maybe you can ask him once he's out of the wood?"

"Oh, I will. He won't get out of this that quickly, trust me!"

"That, I have no doubt about this. Come here."

She let Danny take her in his arms, quickly followed by a group hug when everyone came around the little sister.

"I will go back next to Steve. Call me when the blood results come back."

After that, he left the room in a hurry to be with his best friend.

"He's taking this situation very bad, isn't he? I have seen his hand and I guess he didn't have this injury in a simple fight", Mary guessed.

"He took care of the guy who did this and when Steve was rushed into surgery, he also warned his brother that if anything happened to him, he would come and do the same to him."

"That's how he broke his hand?"

"No. He broke his hand because he punched a wall to get this anger out of him. Which didn't help I guess."

"Steve had a negative impact on him after all these years, it seems...", Mary ironized.

"Trust me, this is nothing compared to what they do every single day to support each other."

Everyone couldn't help but laugh, thinking about how Danny could go on Steve's throat just for driving too fast on the street of Honolulu. But they loved each other in the most friendly way and nobody could understand this bond. Even Mary.

* * *

 **A/N: So, what do you think? Good enough? It feels like this chapter has been the worst I've written for this story so far. **

**I promised on the last A/N to talk more about Steve supposed fear, but I will talk about it later. No need to rush it. What do you think it is, by the way?**


	8. Pride

**Hello! As promised, I give you this eighth chapter here and I will try to "end" this story before anything else this week, although it's gonna be very hard for me.**

 **Right now: Grace and Mary having a discussion, the blood test results etc ^^**

 **ENJOY!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 8**

Mary was really worried about her brother. Although reassured about his general condition, it was a dull fear becoming more present with each passing second. Was there anything else she didn't know about him? Even though they were physically far from each other, they made sure to call each other at least once a week, more often if necessary. After their father's death and especially the last time they saw their mother, they had sworn to tell each other everything. But her brother had many secrets, she was aware of this. Except this time, it was too much. When it was something as serious as radiation poisoning, she couldn't let go. Too many family members had died in recent years and it was out of the question for her to bury Steve. She couldn't handle it, although her daughter is comfort to her.

"Are you okay, Mary? You seem elsewhere", a voice, a female once, interrupted her thoughts.

She raised her head, shaking it slightly. Next to her, Grace was seated, all shy and giving her a glass of water, which she took with no hesitation.

"Thanks, Grace."

A smile irradiated her face, although her eyes were sweating with terror and pain. She didn't need to say anything more to understand that she was terrified of something.

"I should be the one asking how you are", the flight attendant replied. "You tremble like a leaf," she murmured, not to be heard by the rest of the group, visibly more receptive to what Kamekona had just brought in the room.

Grace then began to sigh; she thought that her fear was not visible. However, she had observed her favorite uncle and understood the basics of the fight against her own fear, apparently in vain.

"I'm scared for Uncle Steve", she confessed in a flickering voice. "I'm afraid that... That the last image I have of him could be..."

She stopped, unable to say a word. Obviously shocked, Mary quickly understood what it was all about.

"You went to see Steve", she guessed.

Not a word was said by the two women for a while after Grace nodded. This image of her uncle, half-dead in a hospital bed, haunted her. Every time she thought about it, her blood would freeze, her chest would tighten. It was unbearable. Mary understood, fortunately. She too was more than disturbed by this image of her brother in agony. She could not help but act like a big sister to Grace and came to hug her, which she accepted without any difficulty. She needed this comfort, to feel that she was understood, to be reassured.

"Don't you worry. I am scared too for my brother but you know what time taught me? Steve always gets through this. I don't know how this time will be different."

In a way, it was also a way to feel better. After all these troubles he had to face, all alone or not, he was alive so far, ready to catch more criminals. It was his strength but also his weakness: he always found a way but on the other side, this will to do everything brought his off-limits regardless of the Hawaiian legislation.

"I have never seen Danno so... So hurt by the situation. I mean, when Uncle Steve had this liver problem, he seemed less perturbated. But today..."

"I noticed too when I went to see Steve. Maybe it is because this time, he can do nothing to help? Last time, he saved him with a liver transplant."

"You're right. This time, he wanted to give some blood but the doctor told him he couldn't because of his injury."

"That's why you wanted to donate?"

Grace jumped slightly on the couch, surprised that Mary knew about this story.

"Yes, your mother told me on the way here. Sort of. Technically she only told me that your blood and hers were being tested to see if there was a match. Since you're not legally old enough to give without your parents' consent, I assume it's on your own initiative?"

"Let's just say that I reacted instinctively. I felt totally helpless in the face of the situation. And I had this image in my head. I thought if I could help in any way, maybe it could ease that fear?"

"You're really very brave, you know that? Facing your fear is something that few people are able to do. Consciously, moreover".

"He saved my life so many times", she explained, thinking about when she and Will had been held hostage in the middle of the prom. "I owe him that much."

"No need to justify yourself, Grace. You're smart enough and old enough to make these decisions yourself. To be honest, I think everyone here is proud of you for that."

"They have a funny way of showing it", Grace lamented.

Indeed, this was a rather bad time to express pride or joy. She would have liked her own parents to say it loud and clear. And for the time being, only Sarah, the nurse, and Mary had said those words to her. And it hurt her.

"I understand your distress. Trust me, I know. But put yourself in their shoes too. Steve is more than a colleague to them, he is also their mentor, their friend. We are all Ohana and we all share the same pain deep inside us, to different degrees."

Grace wanted to scream her anger to the whole world. The one of not being heard, the one of being left out with her little brother and Joan. Probably because they were still kids, even though she did everything to prove to her parents that they were wrong. In her mind, she was already an adult. But to avoid yet another tragedy in this heavy atmosphere, she decided to keep quiet.

"Only Uncle Steve sees me as an adult. Well, he's very protective, but with him, it's different. He listens to me, he encourages me, he explains things to me when I don't understand them."

"He's your uncle, of course he'll protect you. He would do the same for any of us. To tell you the truth, Steve always wanted to have children, but... As you know, he hasn't had a chance yet. So he makes up for it with you, with Charlie and with Joan. He is different around children."

"I saw it, up close. I remember one time I went to the prom in high school and we were taken hostages. Danno was with me but 5-0 that intervened. Uncle Steve got rid of the bad guys and shouted my name, as if... As if he had been afraid."

Mary's slight smile at this anecdote quickly faded, something Grace immediately noticed.

"You know something I don't know, Mary?" the girl asked shyly.

"Steve never liked surprises. He likes to control everything and surprises mean not knowing what's going on. If he was afraid that day, it was probably because he was not in complete control of the situation and one member of his family, in blood or in heart, was in danger. Which was obviously the case."

Seeing the discomfort her aunt was in, she decided not to go into any further detail. She had obviously hit a sore spot.

"Maybe we should eat something, I am starving", Mary finally broke the silence.

"I could hear your stomach from the other side of the room", Grace joked.

They both stood up, joining the others for a little feast while still waiting for the blood test results.

* * *

On the other side of the ICU, Dr. Yen was taking a break. He was on shift for more than forty hours now and he barely had time to rest. Let alone eat, drink and sleep. A simple minute on the couch after this rude day helped him greatly. He sighed deeply, closing his eyes for a while. Or he thought he did. He felt asleep almost immediately. Seeing Steve McGarrett after fifteen years had revived some of his memory, a moment he would have preferred to forget forever.

The last time he saw him was when they were fighting the Uglies in the north-west of the country. In fact, Steve's team served as a link between the public and the Navy's intelligence service. After three years in the field, they knew the area inside out and, in addition, they had succeeded in forging links with the local population. It was under these circumstances that the Commander had succeeded in convincing a family man from a small village to act as a double agent. He was receiving money and food for his family from the Taliban, Steve had promised them the freedom to practice their religion without fearing death because of it. Mahmed had taught him their language, religion, beliefs and customs, and he was even considered one of them by some, including their young son, Amin. He saw the soldier as a model and wanted to become like him, someone who would fight evil to liberate his country and his family. When he was sent on patrol to seek information, he always planned to stay a full day to play with the young boy and other children in front of the joy and laughter of the adults. The Seals had taught them how to play football and the opportunity for a visit was to play games. Sometimes parents would also get involved, including women when they were sure that the village was not being observed. Women, according to Taliban laws, were denied sport. Not according to the traditions of the Buddhist village.

Everything was going well until October 2003. McGarrett had left Mahmed a satellite phone, to be used only in case of emergency, and he had received a call from him. According to his sources within the organization, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, considered the number three of the terrorist organization by the United States and the Taliban defense minister, was very close to the village. For this reason, the Chain of Command ordered Steve's team to go to the village to collect more information, to check if this news was true or not. Aiming to set up a larger-scale intervention, it was named Strawberry-Field because of the particularity of where the village was located: despite the arid climate, a wild strawberry specimen had managed to grow in the wettest places. But since the area was difficult to access and almost cut off from the world, radio checks were rarely carried out and, as a result, the two-day mission was also to be carried out without contact, lest the Taliban intercept the exchanges.

Except that at the end of this time, the Command finally got worried. They sent back-ups and after several endless hours, they finally returned to the base. Chang would forever remember that moment when they stepped out of the back of the vehicle in the middle of the convoy. STEVE was on a stretcher, covered in dried blood, unable to move, breathe, open his eyes because he was so weak. Even though he was far from him at the time, he could smell death that accompanied him. And the other team members were also taken out of the vehicles, wrapped in a white bag. They were all dead.

He remembers waiting two weeks for Steve to finally open his eyes and explain what had happened because until now, the whole thing had been based on assumptions. He detailed the horror he had experienced, how the Taliban had trapped them at their own game. How they had tied the Commander before killing his team with a bullet in the head, forcing him to watch the massacre, watching them do unspeakable things with children, women, making the village men an example not to be followed before decimating the entire village. How they had kept the family with whom he had forged strong bonds so that he could see their distress settle in their eyes before they suffered the same fate. How he had let him rot in the midst of the blood of this whole village.

That was the last he heard of him as a soldier. He himself had decided to leave his position in the intelligence service to convert to private life. It was only after many years that Steve McGarrett's name came back to his ears when he created the 5-0. He quickly realized that the one who said that he would not leave the military for anything in the world had had his share of misfortune and wanted a new beginning, far from all this. Seeing the Commander again after all these years, seriously wounded, had rekindled the pain of losing three men, almost losing a fourth man and leaving an entire military family behind.

That was what he had been thinking about since the beginning of his day with the arrival of the group he was taking care of. And since then, he had not stopped running, with no hope of rest until now. Until a sweet voice called out to him, coupled with small shivers.

"Dr.? Dr. Yen?"

"Yeah?" he mumbled, slightly opening his eyes.

He rubbed them sharply, trying to escape from Morpheus. Once fully awakened, he opened them fully, looking down at Sarah.

"I am sorry to wake you up. You asked me to let you know when the blood results for the Commander would have arrived."

Immediately, the doctor who was still suffering from fatigue straightened up, as if to say that he could now be counted on. He didn't know how long he had slept, but it didn't matter. A patient's life was at stake and he had plenty of time to sleep after his shift. And then, as a soldier, he was used to the slow sleep rhythm. He took the papers stretched by the nurse, reading the sheets one by one carefully. Only one piece of data caught his attention. He frowned, raising his head towards Sarah.

"Are you sure these are not false results?"

"The lab checked four times to be sure. There is no mistake", she confirmed.

His jaw dropped; he couldn't believe it! Without hesitation, he straightened up and walked in a matter of second through the space between the medical staff restroom and the one where the group he was in charge of was located. As he entered the room in a gust of wind, he surprised everyone but took the time to catch his breath while almost everyone was eating a meal lovingly prepared by Kamekona. This intrigued the majority of the family.

"Is there a problem, doc?" Junior asked.

"I have the test results of... Rachel Hollister and Grace Williams?" he managed to say after a few seconds of recovery.

The latter advanced towards the doctor, impatient.

"I'll start with you, Mrs. Hollister", he says, clearing his throat and taking a deep breath before continuing. "Your blood type is indeed O positive, but your antibodies do not match those of Commander McGarrett. As a result, you are not a match. I am sorry."

"Oh", she said, disappointed with the result.

She was not in a position to help Steve, to return the favor, and she was very frustrated.

"On the other hand", he continued, turning toward the girl next to Rachel. "You're not a perfect match, but there is something in your blood that could greatly help the Commander."

Everyone froze, opening fully their eyes when they heard the news. Soon, the whole family gathered around Grace, providing support and waiting for more information from Dr. Chang Yen.

* * *

 **A/N: So, what do you think of this? What is happening with Grace? I did a short chapter 8 but I promise you that I will do much better for the next one.**

 **Talking about this, you will know more about Grace's test results but trust me when I say that this is a true fact. I will explain more with the forthcoming A/N and INSIDE the chapter.**

 **I hope you like it so far despite these eight months waiting (with the previous chapter) and I will start writing the next one tomorrow (I already have a big part written on a paper placed on my desk).**

 **And as promised, a part of his fear had been shared (with Grace and Mary chatting).**

 **Will you also leave a review after this chapter?**


	9. Miracle

Hello dear readers! As we say here in France, "chose promise, chose due" (literally, it means "a promised thing is a due thing"), so here is another chapter for this story. I hope I still kept you on your toes for the day after the end of the last chapter.

But the wait is over! Here's the next part and you'll love it!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 9**

"Something that might help him?" Rachel repeated, uncertain of what she just heard.

"Indeed. Let's start with the beginning, shall we? I will explain."

He gestured a seat to take for everyone before continuing his speech. They were all tense, waiting impatiently for the news.

"First of all, unlike you thought you were", he started, talking about Grace, "you are not B positive but O positive, just like your mom."

"But that's impossible! Charlie is B positive, like my dad! With my mom being O positive, I should be B positive, right?" the young woman stated.

"Not necessarily. You didn't learn that part at school?"

Grace stopped talking, thinking back to all her biology classes. She didn't remember having a class about blood characteristics.

"Let's go back to the base then. Your NDA is 50% of your dad and 50% of your mom. Is it okay so far?"

"Yes", she confirmed while frowning, unsure of what the physician meant.

"It's the same thing for your blood: half from each of your parents. Who had the same thing and over. The A and B characteristics are dominants for the determination of your blood type. If your dad received an O and a B genes..."

"His blood type is B. And he gave me the O gene and the B one to my brother", she cut him once she figured out the whole process.

"Correct. Your mom having an O blood type, she received two O genes, she could only give you the same."

"This is why Charlie is B and I am O. I guess it's the same for the... The rhesus?"

"Indeed. That's why you're all positive. Your combination is uncommon given your parents' blood type but not impossible."

"Is this why I can donate my blood to Uncle Steve?"

"No, not at all. I just wanted to explain to you why you were O positive and not B positive."

Grace straightened up, just like the rest of her extended family.

"Each organ of our body produces specific hormones. One of them is called erythropoietin, shortly named EPO. It's secreted by our kidneys and you can find traces of it in our bone marrow. It stimulates the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues and allow recovery during intense efforts, injuries or even diseases. Everyone produces a very limited amount of that hormone and this is why it is used in sports as a doping agent."

"Alright, but what does that mean?" Rachel grew impatient, not knowing if all this explanation had a meaning.

"For some people, this amount is much higher than normal, and thus naturally. In general, they are rarely sick and if they are injured, they heal very quickly. And after a huge effort, they recover much faster. It is this hormone", he emphasized while turning toward Grace, "naturally present in your blood at a high level, that could be the solution to help the Commander."

Amazed by this revelation, no one was able to speak. No sound could come out of their mouths as the surprise was so great. A simple hormone would be able to save Steve?

"H-how", Grace finally stammered.

"As I said earlier, EPO enables a significant creation of red blood cells, carrying oxygen. It also helps to heal faster. A higher level of this hormone in his blood could accelerate the healing process and thus, reduce the pain he feels while waking up. Which would be a good thing for him since he is intolerant to many of the drugs we can give him."

"SO, if you... If you give him my blood, he'll heal and get better?" the young woman asked innocently.

"It should take some time but yes, there is a higher chance. People with a naturally high amount of EPO are wanted, especially for burned victims and prenatal babies. An accelerated healing process and increased development are the keys to survive in these conditions. The fact that you are O positive on top of that expands your capacity to help people."

"Because..."

"Because this blood type is considered universal. Being O positive means that you can potentially give your blood to any person with a rhesus positive. In Hawaii, it represents... About 80% of the population."

Everyone was dumbfounded, stupefied by the doctor's words to Grace.

"I can help 80% of the island?"

"Potentially. But right now, you can help one of them."

"Uncle Steve."

Dr. Yen nodded, confirming the information.

"And uh... There is no problem with the... The antigens?"

"We tested the main antigens and there was rather no problem. The fact that the Detective gave half of his liver helps the donation: his body tolerates these antigens thanks to the anti-rejection medications. This is why I gave priority to Grace's blood, if both your parents are okay with this."

Immediately, Grace turned toward her mom, excited about being able to help her uncle.

"Mom, please, let me help Uncle Steve!"

"There is no need to convince me, sweetie. If you can help, just do it."

"Thank you, mom!"

She then threw herself around her mother's neck, delighted to be able to do something good.

"Mommy?"

A small voice, coming from nowhere, interrupted the action. Charlie's with Joan at his side.

"Yes, monkey?"

"Why can Grace help Uncle Steve and not you?"

Unable to answer, she was speechless for a moment before Dr. Yen came to the rescue.

"A girl or boy is who he or she is because in his or her DNA, what makes you who you are, there are chromosomes. One of them is called XY. For girls it is XX and for boys it is XY".

"I am XY and Grace is XX?"

"Yes, that's right! To figure this out, your mother, who is a girl, gave one of her X and your father gave either the X or the Y randomly."

"So Danno who decided that Grace was a girl and I was a boy?"

This observation made a large part of the group smile, including the doctor. That's not how it worked, but in a way, Charlie wasn't wrong. A child's sex was determined by the gene his father had given him.

"It was indeed Danno who decided. And you know what? It's the same for your blood. But Grace has something extra in hers that can help Uncle Steve heal faster."

"Can Grace's blood help Uncle Steve?"

"Absolutely!" Grace intervened. "My blood can fight for him and he can get better."

"So... Are you a superhero?" she asked his older sister. "Like Uncle Steve is SuperSEAL?"

"Su... SuperSEAL?" Dr. Yen asked, unsure of what he heard.

"Well yes, he catches the bad guys and before that, he was a hero in the NavySEAL!"

"He's still our hero, Charlie", Grace told her brother.

"Is he really going to get better with your blood?"

"You said it yourself, Charlie: I'm a superhero and I have a super blood! Uncle Steve will heal very quickly!"

To reassure her little brother, Grace hugged him, as she used to do when he felt bad, sad or scared. It was an unwavering bond between two siblings, something they had learned to develop further after the bone marrow transplant. And it warmed the hearts of the entire room. Dr. Yen let himself be softened by the scene for a few moments before coming to his senses and turning his head towards Rachel.

"We're going to need your and Detective Williams' authorization, as well as your donor cards. Sarah will organize all this while I go pick up your husband and explain the situation to him."

Rachel did not correct the doctor, nor did anyone do it for her as he left the room.

* * *

In no time, Dr. Yen walked down the hallway, rejoiced with the good news. According to the Commander's latest analyses, his condition was deteriorating minute by minute and it was urgent to intervene, if only to replace the blood he had lost. But with Grace's blood, everything had changed; a simple transfusion could now save his life with a simple hormone whose level was naturally high in her. A blessing well received. Some kind of miracle. If he could jump for joy to express his emotions, he would do so without a moment's hesitation, but for now, he had to remain professional and not show his excitement. After all, he had been trained to do that. Shyly, he knocked on the door; he had seen through the now slightly open blinds that Danny had fallen asleep beside Steve. Not seeing him move, he still entered the room. The position chosen to sleep was not optimal but after the difficult day he had just experienced, he could not blame him.

"Detective Williams?" he tried weakly.

But it didn't work; the police officer was in a deep sleep. Nevertheless, he had to wake him up, even if it tore his heart out; he was in a great need to sleep.

"Detective?" he repeated louder.

This time, Danny woke up in a start. Surprised, he got up abruptly, pushing the doctor who almost tripped. He owed his salvation only to the foot of the bed planted in the middle of the room on which Steve lay motionless. Taking control of his own body, his eyes met those of Dr. Yen and he quickly apologized.

"There is no need. I woke you up and after what happened today, this reaction is normal", he reassured the man in front of him. "I came here to talk about the blood test results of your daughter and your wife."

Again, Danny noted the mistake but decided not to say a word. Even though they were separated and officially divorced, the bond between them, particularly through their two children, was still there. They had stayed very close and deep inside he was still deeply in love with Rachel, even if he hid it from her for fear of ruining their relationship again.

"Please, tell me there's a match."

"There is one with Grace but not with Mrs. Hollister. They are both O positive but your daughter has a remarkably high level of a hormone commonly known as EPO. This can help the Commander heal faster and fight the infection more valiantly. This is why I would need your consent to perform an exceptional transfusion with Grace's blood."

"Tell me what to do and I will", Danny stated, relieved.

"You need to go to the nurse office in order to fill the content forms with your wife so that your daughter can donate her blood exceptionally."

Danny shook his head up and down, and neither of the two men spoke for several long seconds, the calm interspersed with beeps from the heart monitor and the hissing of mechanical ventilation.

"You should rest a bit. You seem... Flushed."

"I am not leaving his side", Danny explained with a very low voice.

The physician understood the situation. The big lines at least.

"I can ask Sarah to bring one of our comfortables couch from our restroom in here, with a pillow and a blanket? If it can help."

Uncertain, Danny raised his head and realized immediately that Yen was serious.

"You would do that?"

"Listen, I don't pretend to know the bond between the two of you but what I know is that you both need the other to get better. So if we can help in a way, we will", he assured.

Danny passed his hands over his face, obviously tired and reassured not to have to leave the room for very long.

"Thank you. Really, I appreciate it."

"No problem. If you want, I think one of your friends came with something to eat," he explained, talking about Kamekona.

"Oh. Do you want some? Knowing Kamekona, he surely brought enough to feed an entire regiment", Danny joked.

It made the doctor smile, but he had to refuse the invitation.

"To be honest, I'm allergic to shrimp."

Danny frowned, hoping he didn't hear what he thought he had heard.

"Hold on a second... You're from the Navy, which is part of the US marine, and you're allergic to seafood?"

"I admit that it's not very rewarding."

"Rewarding? I would say disappointing. Humiliating even", he explained with large gestures.

"This might be the reason for having been denied?"

"I bet! You are all that crazy in the Army or there are only Steve and you?"

"Navy", the doctor corrected. "And yes, I think we are all rotten to the core."

"I forgot Junior. He would follow Steve through the gates of Hell."

"Apparently, you too."

"Me? No, I stop you right there. I have two kids I love and there's no way I'm following a madman. I don't have a car anymore, it's a whole gun shop. As if I didn't know about the grenades under the passenger seat or his weapon safe in the trunk instead of the spare wheel. I already told him not to do that, but he doesn't listen to me."

Although amused by the anecdote, the physician figured out what the detective had in mind. He was ready to explode, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. To tell the truth, he needed a break.

"Your car is not a gun shop as well, is it?"

"I am pleading the fifth on that one", Chang Yen ironized.

"Crazy. I am surrounded by animals", he mumbled more for him than for someone else.

After a while, the physician continued.

"If you can go to the nurse office for the papers and take a little time to eat, drink and rest..."

"You insist?"

"The nurses keep an eye on every patient from the desk and they come to check in every thirty minutes. Your friend had nothing to fear if you leave him for an hour", he reassured the policeman. "And that will give them time to prepare the couch for you."

Danny sighed, passing his hands over his face again. It was true that he felt tired but he was not allowed to flinch now. Steve had been able to resist many misfortunes since his childhood without flinching, so he had to prove himself worthy of being his closest friend. But if he wakes up, seeing him in a deplorable state would probably only make the situation worse.

"Alright", he gave in. "For Steve, I'd do anything."

"See? You would be ready to cross the gates of Hell for him."

"Don't push your case too far."

Before leaving, he leaned towards Steve's face, hoping that deep inside, he could be heard.

"Did you hear Steve? Grace will save your life this time", he whispered in his ear.

* * *

 _"Grace will save your life this_ _time"_. These words from his partner in crime, Daniel Williams, penetrated his still partially asleep brain. A reassuring voice, a speech that reminded him that not a long time ago, he had saved his best friend's daughter's life again, the one he considered as his own niece. Two years ago, she was held hostage with her classmates by a terrorist group because they wanted the release of their leader, Suharto Chandra. Unfortunately, when the Philippine government heard about this, they accelerated his execution and there was to way to satisfy the holders because this leader was dead already.

Lou was starting to come out of his shoes because Will, his son, was also inside the building, and therefore in a life-threatening situation. To be honest, Steve remembered feeling the same way.

 _A dull pain had seized his chest, preventing him from breathing as he would have liked. He was afraid. He didn't admit it, but the fact that Danny and Grace, and Will too, were in danger was a torture he couldn't stand. He had already been put in this kind of situation before, but he had never given up anything. Fortunately, he knew how to hide his fears, otherwise he would have been dead long ago. There was just one information that allowed the 5-0 Task Force to have the advantage over the hostage-takers, and that reassured him a little bit._ _He had the whole team gathered around him to review the situation._

 _"The only thing we got going for us right now is that the Philippine government has not made news of this execution public yet", Steve summarized, emphasizing the last word._

 _Yet. This word was important. The second the news would spread, the whole situation could get from bad to worse and everybody knew that._

 _"Yeah well, Ramos can get his government to hold off on that announcement", Lou reacted very quickly._

 _"Yeah, but it's a matter of time before that news leaks", Kono responded, sure of herself._

 _"We're gonna have to breach before then."_

 _"No. No, we can't breach yet", Chin evaluated the situation. "We don't know how many of them there are, we don't know what kind of firepower they have or where they're even holding the hostages. We can't get close enough for thermals."_

 _Chin was right all along. They had too little information at their disposal to enter the building and stop this charade. They did not know where to attack, how many men to fight or what response they could receive. It was far too risky, both for the intervention team and for the hostages. There was too much to lose._

 _"What if we can convince them to release a few hostages?" Kono proposed._

 _And all of a sudden, everything became clear. Getting some hostages out! They knew where they were being held in the building, how many armed men there were, but also what kind of weapons they had. A perfect shot!_

 _"Yes, yes!" Steve shouted._

 _He was so happy with this new idea that he could have kissed Kono for it. But he had to behave himself and focus on the current situation._

 _"That means we get a couple of kids back and those kids can tell us what the setup is in there."_

 _At the same time, his phone rang. He knew who it was; the leader of the group holding everyone inside. H_ _e knew what this call was about: he wanted to know how far their leader's release was progressing. Steve had to hide this information perfectly, even if it meant lying to him to get what he wanted and save time._

 _"Commander McGarrett."_

 _"Have you made the arrangements?" a voice with a very strong accent came to his ears._

 _"Yeah", he lied quickly. "Yeah, I have. I need a show of good faith from you. I need a couple hostages."_

 _"Not going to happen", the reply came as quickly._

 _"Two hostages", the former NavySEAL insisted, hoping that he would release Grace and Danny first._

 _"You're wasting time, time which you do not have. Because in thirty minutes, people will die."_

 _At that precise moment, Steve knew full well that he would lose his arm-wrestling match. The man on the phone was obviously determined to complete his action to get someone who was already dead released._

 _"Listen to me, two kids. What's it gonna hurt? Just give me two kids", he still insisted._

 _"Ask again and I'll shoot two hostages."_

 _A long silence set in, a heavy atmosphere began to prevail around Steve, each of the members of the 5-0 waiting to see what was going on and why the phone had stopped, although the call was still on. Finally, a small voice came to take them out of their waiting._

 _"Steve?"_

 _"Danny!"_

 _The relief was instantaneous, especially for Steve. He had never been so happy to hear his best friend's voice, although he felt it shaking. The tension inside must have been unsustainable at this rate._

 _"Listen to me: these guys, they mean business, okay?"_

 _Not knowing where all this would go, the Navy man frowned, listening to the deep voice of Danny._

 _"So you-you got to-you got to do what they say. Alright? Call the consul, do what you will."_

 _McGarrett was immediately worried. Danny never spoke like that, even in alarming situations. Something was wrong. Or did he want to send a message without being noticed?_

 _"Call who you will, okay? Alright, because-cause they're-they're gonna do what they say they're gonna do. They will, you understand? Call who you will alright?"_

 _"He's the first one to die", the strong-accent guy affirmed. "You have twenty-nine minutes."_

 _The call ended and Steve couldn't help but think back to Danny's words. He could not understand what he could have said through this coded message._

 _"Call whoever you will?" he repeated out loud._

 _"That doesn't sound like Danny", Kono realized._

 _"Will. Will. Will is someplace safe and Danny is telling me to call my son!" Lou finally interpreted the Detective's words._

 _A great relief seized the group and Steve immediately asked Captain Grover to do this while he was refining his plan of attack to free the hostages. Thanks to Will, not only did the 5-0 know where all the group members and hostages were, but he had managed to find a place to stay safe while taking a video of the entire room. As a result, they knew live where everyone was and could act accordingly. He asked everyone to gear up before being joined by his team and a dozen men from the Honolulu police department and SWAT. Steve equipped his weapon with a silent device that he could deactivate at will and decided to lead the way inside the building._

 _Behind him, Kono followed him on his left and Chin on his right. Lou, as usual, closed the path and protected the group from behind, followed by all the others. When they arrived at the entrance discreetly, they found two men standing guard. Not for long: Steve did not hesitate for a second to use his rifle to shoot them down. Once on the ground, Kono made sure to keep their weapons away, just in case they were still alive but she didn't believe it. In this kind of situation, Steve was deadly precise. Everyone took their usual places: Kalakaua on the left of the door with Grover behind her, McGarrett on the other side with Chin covering his blindspots. A SWAT member came to place a small bomb on the wooden door cable and took cover while Lou watched on his phone how the situation had progressed inside the room._

 _Discreetly, he started whistling to get the attention of his teammates. He showed his eyes and then lowered his thumb: the hostage-takers were placed in such a way that they did not look at the door behind which they were standing. Steve concentrated, with his finger on the trigger and his falcon eye in the viewfinder, ready to shoot anyone who wasn't on the ground. Everyone covered themselves before the device stuck to the door exploded. The signal to enter._

 _"Put your hands up!" Steve screamed, not to destabilize his opponents but more to explain to the hostages not to move at all to make their work easier._

 _Lou shot one of the terrorists while Steve fired five bullets into another guy, making sure to target the vital organs at the top of his chest. He gave him no chance to get out of it alive, his eyes dripping hate and anger. The other team members, including the two cousins, took care of the rest of the men while the situation was finally under control._

 _"Everybody all right?" Steve asked, still worried about Danny and Grace._

 _But no one answered and his anguish grew as he scanned everyone on the ground, looking for the two people he wanted to see._

 _"Grace... Where's Grace? Where is Grace Williams?" he screamed as his teammates assured that the place was safe._

 _"Uncle Steve!"_

 _Suddenly, he saw a young girl wearing a beautiful pale pink dress rose. Observing her insistently, he had difficulty recognizing the girl. But he was relieved to see her at last. He rushed over her and hugged her, finally lowering his weapon and guard. He could feel her fear in his arms; her heart was beating fast, her breathing was just as fast. But at least the nightmare was over._

Never in his life had he been so afraid as he had been that day.

 _"You okay?" he asked her, taking her face in his gloved and shaky hands._

 _"Yeah", she assured._

 _"You sure?" he insisted._

 _When it came to Grace, Steve instantly became a mother hen. Surprising when you knew the beast, but deep down, it showed how much he could worry about the people he loved despite all his training to contain his emotions._

 _"Yeah", she repeated, although disturbed._

 _Somewhat reassured, he then turned to Danny. He saw him on the verge of tears, visibly relieved to have come out of this hell._

 _"What, nothing? Nothing? No hug?" Steve spoke, frustrated that he did not receive the same preferential treatment from him._

 _"I am so happy to see you right now, I'll give you a kiss, I'll give you a hug. Pick a base"._

 _"Give me a hug."_

The fact that, that day, he was able to save Grace was a moment he would never forget. He could give up everything for her. She wasn't his daughter, but with her, he wasn't afraid to show his true emotions. He could be natural. The bad guys were warned: if one of them even looked at her inappropriately, he would be pleased to take care of this on his own. No one but Ohana could approach her.

Danny's last words began to resonate in his head: Grace was going to save him. The world upside down now. She had become a young woman who no longer needed his protection.

* * *

As Dr. Yen and Danny Williams were about to leave the room, one of the machines began to sound heavier. The two men turned around, looking for the source of the problem.

"Doc, what's going on?"

"I don't know", he lamented, approaching the bed again and checking all the equipment.

He immediately noticed that Steve's heart rate had increased, although it was still lower than normal. He then watched his body carefully, trying to understand why such a sudden increase in strength. A few seconds later, he began to smile, intriguing Danny.

"Doc?"

"See this rapid eye movement?"

The policeman approached and took into account what the doctor asked him. Steve's eyes were moving in all directions and his eyelids were like a spasming stream.

"What is it?"

"It's a sign that he's in a dream state. Or that he is hallucinating; it is possible because of the medications that we have been trying to administer to him since his admission.

"Are you telling me that... That Steve can hear us?"

"I have a good feeling about it. I have already observed this phenomenon twice in him. Each time, his heart rate increased significantly, as if... As if he was recalling an important part of his life. I know what I'm talking about; soldiers all have this kind of instinctive behavior."

"And uh... Is that a good thing?"

"It means that what happens around him has an impact on what happens in his head. Interactions are very important in this type of situation. This is proof."

Danny understood what the doctor meant; what he had just said in Steve's ear had been enough to trigger an important memory for him. In the future, he would try to talk to him more often rather than stay close to him waiting for him to wake up.

* * *

In the family waiting room, everyone continued to eat, including the two youngest, Charlie and Joan, while Grace and Rachel took care of the blood donation formalities. In the corner of the room, the two seven-year-old kids were discussing, just like the adults.

"Uncle Steve's gonna get better?" Joan asked Charlie.

The very young girl was still not in touch with what the physician had explained to the others.

"Yes, Grace will cure him!"

"Oh, I have an idea for a magic drawing! What about Grace saving Uncle Steve? Like Superman?"

"And another one with everyone around him? To protect him?"

The two youngsters agreed and checked their hands to prove it.

"These are gonna be our best magic drawings!"

* * *

 **A/N: Any thoughts about this chapter? Before having your feelings about it in your following reviews, let me explain something. This EPO thing is REAL. My dad had this abnormal high hormones amount and he gave it to me too. As we both are O positive, we can donate our blood for very specific events, such as burned victims brought to the ICU of your city OR baby being born before due and underdeveloped. I rarely get sick (I can go to school in a shirt while it's literally freezing outside), I heal very fast (a cut takes a day or two to close instead of a week) and recover from huge efforts very quickly (like when I play indoor soccer, it takes at least two hours before completely recover from a match, it takes less than one with me ^^). Practical but on the other side, it's dangerous: as our blood is uncommon (with the antigens I talked about at the beginning of the chapter), we are a match with "only" 10% of the population in our country BUT only people with the same characteristics and with an O blood type are a match with us (less than 5% of the population).**

 **I have to give a huge thanks to SteveMcGarettLover;** **this whole story of "the process facilitated by liver transplant" was an idea that I hadn't thought of and that seemed excellent to me! THANKS**

 **That said, what do you think of this chapter? Good? Bad? Not good enough for you? What about this other flashback Steve had because of Danny's words whispered into his ears?**

 **Tell me!**


	10. The first time

HELLO EVERYONE! It's time for a new chapter!

This time, I tried to focus more on Grace and what she had in mind. As you can guess she's proud to be able to donate her blood to her uncle but on the other side, she's terrified because she doesn't know how it works (as she never donated before). And another flashback, of course!

Hope you will like it ^_^

* * *

 **CHAPTER 10**

Grace was highly stressed. Now that she had agreed to donate her blood and her parents were on her side, she had no idea what was going to happen. it terrified her. And since almost no one was paying attention to her...

"Grace? You okay?"

She turned her head toward the little voice she had just heard. In front of her were standing Charlie and Joan, both eating a salad made with the ingredients brought by Kamekona. She forced herself to smile.

"Yes, Charlie. I'm fine."

"I know you're lying."

That was true. Her little brother was probably the person who knew how frightening the situation was, for having experienced it as a patient when he was very sick. After this, they promised they would never lie to each other again.

"You're right", she confessed in a whisper. "I don't know what's going to happen now and... And it scares me."

"It's simple, isn't it?" Joan intervened. "You're going to give Uncle Steve your blood and he'll get better."

She smiled again. If only it were that simple. She knew all this but she didn't know how it was going to work. She had never been to a blood donation before. Faced with so much innocence, the young girl could only feel better.

"Thank you, both of you. I feel a little relieved now."

"Grace?"

Another voice, more feminine and mature, interrupted this fraternal moment. Once again, she turned her head, this time to the other side to find out who it was. A woman in a nurse's clothing was standing in the door frame, her black hair combed into a braid. Sarah.

"It's time", she announced with a slight smile.

This time, everyone turned to her, finally giving her all the attention she had hoped to get earlier in the day. The warmth of their eyes, pride filling them after they had seen one of their own coming to Steve's rescue, made her dizzy. This was not what she wanted; she wanted support from them, explanations about how the process would proceed. But since she had come back into the family room, no one but her brother and her cousin at heart had spoken to her. So, both to show her anger towards her family and her deep desire to help her uncle, she suddenly got up and followed Sarah without a second thought, her head raised and her eyes devoured by determination.

Once the door was closed, out of everyone's reach, she stopped. She felt deep inside that she was close to the implosion. Not feeling the presence of her new patient for a few minutes, the nurse turned around and saw that Grace's face had just changed color and that she was on the verge of tears.

"Is everything all right, Grace?" she tried.

The closer she got and the more she understood. Grace was having a sort of panic attack.

"Grace, look at me. Look at me", the pink-coated nurse insisted. "You are going to inhale very slowly on the count of three. One. Two. Three."

She began the maneuver, soon followed by the girl.

"And now, you're going to exhale just as slowly", she explained in a calm voice.

Both exhaled and breath again several times until Grace could finally calm down.

"What is scaring you, sweetheart?"

"I... I don't know how it's going to work", she admitted weakly.

"Didn't your parents or family explain to you when you came back in the room?"

She nodded negatively, closing her eyes at the same time.

"I feel like... As if abandoned."

"They didn't abandon you, Grace. Let's say they are... Concerned about McGarrett."

"I wish Uncle Steve had been there to explain all this. Or just talk to me. Charlie and Joan are too young to understand what's really going on, but all the others..."

"Grace, listen to me. Even if they're not as terrified as you are, they are too. Right now, their best friend, their brother in arms, a member of their family, is dying. And they know that you have the opportunity to save him. You're their only hope. They are also afraid because they don't know if it will work and if it doesn't, it could go wrong. But you know what?"

"What?"

"One thing they don't know is that we, and I mean Dr. Yen and me, we know it's going to work. Do you know why?"

Once again, Grace nodded in negative, waiting for a clear answer from the woman in front of her.

"Because we believe in you. And we are very proud of you."

These simple sentences were enough to give her some comfort in her heart, enough courage to continue after this moment of absolute doubt. She nodded, coming to her senses.

"I'll explain to you how we're going to proceed once we're in a room, okay?"

"All right."

This time, she was able to move and follow Sarah into the room next door, a few feet away from her whole family. White paint, a tray with tools she had never seen before. She hesitated to enter but she trusted the nurse. Both sat in front of each other on a chair to discuss and to explain how the process would go.

"A blood donation takes about an hour in its entirety."

"That much?"

"It's not just the donation itself. Long story short, there are five main steps. Okay?" First, you fill out a question sheet. Second, someone will register you for the blood donation. Third, you wait a little while until a nurse takes care of you to evaluate if you are able to donate, taking great attention to the questions you answered. The same nurse takes your blood pressure, observes your heart rate, she also takes a little drip of blood from your finger to see if you have anemia, a lack of iron in your blood, and if you have a doubt about your weight, there is a scale at your disposal. If the nurse agrees for a donation, you wait until a bed is free. And four, the blood donation can begin."

"Okay, it's not too difficult. But you said five steps."

"Once the donation is made, you stay nearby to regain your strength. A catering ward is available with cakes, sandwiches, hot and cold drinks. Anything you want. And once you estimate that your strength is back, you can leave."

"And uh... The donation itself, how it... Uh..."

"How it's going?"

Grace nodded, patiently waiting for an answer.

"You're going to lie down and give me the arm you use the least or show me the side you feel most comfortable with when making the donation. Then I will install a kind of little rubber tourniquet on your arm so that I can see your veins properly. I sterilize the area I'm going to use and with a syringe, I'm going to enter the largest vein. After about ten to twenty minutes, the totally empty and faded pocket you see there", she explained, showing a flat and deformed object, "will be full of your blood. I will then remove the needle and seal the pouch. I'll register it, bandage your stung area and then you can go rest and eat a little before you leave."

Grace nodded again, mentally noting all the information she had just received. There was so much to it...

"Don't worry, sweetheart. It's your first donation and I'm going to accompany you all the way so you can understand everything, okay?"

"Okay."

"Well, first of all, you already filled out the form at the nurses' office, look."

Sarah took the paper in hand, showing it to Grace.

"Oh, it's the one with the questions a little... Strange and sometimes intimate."

"Yes, but we have no choice. Sometimes the situation makes blood donation impossible with this information."

"I've seen questions that make no sense either."

"You mean the ones about diseases with weird names?"

"Yes, and those who ask us where we've been recently or... Those on... On sexual relations."

Grace turned red, as if her last words were taboo. She was still young and sex was something she didn't necessarily talk about, especially to her parents.

"These questions are essential, however. Some areas are risky and donating after a trip to these areas can pose an additional risk to the patient who will receive your blood. We wouldn't want to make the patient even sicker, would we?"

"No. Not at all."

"As for sex", Sarah whispered, making Grace smile, "the government believes there is a risk of transmission of certain diseases that prevent blood donation."

"But how can a homosexual relationship prevent a blood donation? I mean, it's a relationship like any other, right?"

"It is considered that these relationships are more at risk. According to the law, the people concerned pay less attention to protecting themselves and as a result, the risk of transmission is higher. I find this personally unfair; if a homosexual person is as healthy as a heterosexual person, then he should have the right to donate blood."

"It's sad."

"Let me reassure you, they know how to hijack the question form in order to give their blood. We know about this phenomenon", Sarah explained when she saw that Grace was sad after this announcement. "But we're desperately short of donors so we're letting it go. And then, how do you want to identify a sexual difference in a single contact? This is impossible, in most cases."

Grace finally began to smile, reassured. She was still a little stressed, but not as much as before. Now that someone had explained the whole process to her, she knew she could do it. And she trusted Sarah. About an hour later, after a big discussion and the blood donation, the young girl was escorted back to the family room by the nurse. Shouts invaded the space as soon as she put one foot inside. Surprised, she looked up: everyone was applauding, whistling and saluting her selfless gesture, that of having given blood to save her uncle's life without the slightest hesitation. This renewed attention from her entire family hit her hard, embracing her with warmth and love. Sarah smiled, satisfied with the scene in front of her. The girl probably didn't expect this, thinking no one had paid attention to her: she made a big mistake. Each of them was terribly proud of her. Dismayed, large tears began to run down her face and blurred her vision.

"Hey, babe. Don't cry."

Someone hugged her as she recognized that voice, that perfume. She then began to cry more, placing her arms around the person cuddling her. Will, her lover. he hadn't even realized that he was there in the room when she came back into the room, what a shame. But she was happy to see him close to her. Lou and Rachel looked at each other, happy to see their children like this.

"Thank you", Rachel said without any sound coming out of her mouth, a smile radiating her face.

He nodded, making it clear that he has read her lips correctly.

* * *

At the other end of the hall, Danny had returned to Steve's room after eating a little and drinking a bottle of water. He was starving but his stomach refused the slightest piece of food. He felt tired, totally drained of all energy. The only thing that kept him going now was the desperate expectation he was facing. He knew that Steve could open his eyes at any time and that gave him enough courage and strength to wait for that moment. How would he react to the situation? Would he immediately realize that he couldn't breathe on his own? Was he going to be weak or would he wake up suddenly? There were so many questions he was asking himself. The only problem he was afraid of was that he didn't know how he could stop Steve from panicking when he was going to realize that he wouldn't have control over his breathing. That was the whole point of the problem.

It was something they had never spoken about but yes, he knew that his partner was afraid of at least one thing. Everyone was afraid of something, he was convinced of it from the beginning but he had trouble finding his colleague's. After much research and years of collaboration, he had managed to discover his secret. And his story with Operation Strawberry Field only confirmed what he thought: Steve had some kind of agoraphobia. Not the one saying that he was afraid of people, too crowded place or anything, no. It was more the fact that if he did not control what was happening, that he did not know everything about the situation he was facing, something serious would happen, something he could not control. And something he couldn't control meant that he couldn't optimally protect his loved ones. The fear of not being able to fully keep his family safe and sound. He hid it well, but he did so thanks to his multiple military training.

So, can you now imagine yourself in Steve's shoes, with this phobia and a long tube stuck in your throat to breathe for you? Do you see the scene? It was a torture session that Danny was most afraid of: keeping Steve as calm as possible in the face of his deepest fear.

"Uh... I don't know how this all works, but I hope you can hear me somewhere."

He sighed, putting his hands on his face while taking a more comfortable position on the couch provided by the nurses.

"I feel like I'm talking to a wall. But you know what? Dr. Yen and the nurses are sure you can hear me, so I'm going to continue to sound like an idiot, talking in a void."

He started smiling, mentally having a little argument with his best friend, as they knew how to do so well.

"Yes, I know. I'm an idiot. You don't have to think that. Because it's true. I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot for not covering your ass. A worthy partner would have followed you to the other side of the universe to protect you. I didn't. I wasn't there when you needed me."

Danny approached Steve, now not embarrassed anymore by the presence of the ventilator or the numerous tubes coming out of his friend's body.

"Do you remember the first time we met? When we were both ready to shoot each other just because we didn't want to give in on something as simple as putting our gun down and identifying ourselves? We have come so far together since that day. We went from "I hate you so much" to "I love you so much that I could go to Hell to get your soul back just to bring you back to life"."

* * *

Again that voice he appreciated, sweet and reassuring. But also full of sadness. He didn't like to hear that from Danny. Each time, he just wanted to hug him in order to take away his grief. He remembered perfectly well their first meeting. He wouldn't forget for anything in the world...

 _Steve just had a spot on the red dusted toolbox with a CHAMP logo on the front, immediately realizing that his father wanted him to find it. Opening it, he only found many trinkets and pictures, as well as a recorder. The latter caught his attention and he grabbed it, cautiously activating it. Soon, the voice of his late father filled the room. At the time, he didn't quite understand what was going on but his dad was formal: part of the Honolulu PD was dirty and he didn't know now who to trust for the investigation he seemed to be conducting secretly. In the background, he could hear a noise, thanks to his increased hearing abilities through his training as a NavySEAL. It wasn't a soundtrack; someone had just entered the house. Probably a police officer? He so decided to stop the recording, putting it back in the box before sealing it again in order to take it discreetly and leave the house unnoticed, something he was used to. This was without relying on this stranger, who entered the garage, to his great surprise. In a split second, the two men had bragged their respective guns, pointing them at each other and ready to pull the trigger._

 _"You! Hands up, don't move!" the blond-hair officer cried out in a shrieking voice._

 _"Who are you?!" Steve asked, his military instincts gaining the upper hand._

 _"Who are you?!" the policeman imitated him._

 _As a gesture of reassurance and security, Steve tried to sneak his way to the ruined car, a Mercury Marquis his father had promised to restore with him, a promise never kept because of his mother's accidental death._

Well, it was until he learned the truth about this, understand that Doris was very well alive and had escaped an assassination attempt and abandoned everything behind.

 _This approach was mainly to protect himself from a possible shot, a reflew he had gained and couldn't get rid of for a few years now. But when he saw the officer do the same to get him on sight, he quickly realized that he would not be safe anywhere. He stopped his maneuver, waiting for a response from the man with a weapon held on him._

 _"I'm Detective Danny Williams-"_

 _"Lieutenant-Commander Steven McGarrett", he cut him immediately, trying to impress him with his current rank in the Navy. "This is my father's house."_

 _"Put your weapon down, right now", he required without shaking or frowning._

 _Steve thought that either the dude didn't care about his military background or he didn't listen to what he just said. In both cases, this implied very clearly that the detective knew what he was doing and that he could quickly select the essential information provided to him. He was an excellent cop._

 _"No, you put your weapon down", Steve insisted, mostly to see the limits of the man in front of him. "And show me your ID!"_

 _"Dude, show me your ID right now!"_

 _"I am not putting my gun down", the NavySEAL said very seriously, calming down because all this noise perturbed him a lot._

 _"Neither am I", Danny answered in a deep voice._

 _Deep down, Steve would not have hesitated to shoot him just to shut him up, but he was amused by this exchange. It had managed to make him forget all the horror of the situation; Freddie's death followed closely by his father's, the detonation through the phone still ringing in his ears, the thumping sound of his lifeless body dully hitting the ground haunting him, the mournful laughter of Victor Hesse wandering his brain._

 _Steve calmed down, stopping his trembling fingers from pulling the trigger._

 _"Use your free hand, take out your ID", he asked one more time._

 _He knew that Williams still wasn't near his limits._

 _"Please, after you."_

 _Someone just as stubborn as him, with hot blood and seemingly reacting in a hurry, he would have sworn that Freddie had reincarnated in the police officer's body when he dies a few days earlier. He found him fascinating and he quickly guessed that he would never have the upper hand over him._

 _"At the same time?" he conceded._

 _"At the same time?" Danny repeated, kind of surprised and scoffing at the soldier._

 _"Yeah, at the same time", he confirmed, feeling the high tension plummeting into the garage._

 _Steve wasn't at ease with the situation, he didn't like having a gun pointed at him, too many bad memories. It gave him cold sweats every time._

 _"What, like on the count of three?"_

 _Inwardly laughing, McGarrett mentally admitted that it was a very good idea._

 _"Okay. Three is good."_

 _Surprised again, the policeman remained silent for two long seconds, enough to please Steve._

 _"One."_

 _The two men removed their left hand from their guns in order to take their ID from their pockets._

 _"Two."_

 _This time, the brought them up to the height of their respective weapons to prove their identity. And before the countdown was endedn they both relaxed._

 _"Three."_

 _Quickly, they put their ID away and holstered their guns, reassured not to have come across criminals._

 _"Listen, I am really sorry about your father but you can't be here right now. This is an active crime scene", Danny explained in a deep tone._

 _Steve realized soon that when he spoke with that deep voice, it meant that he wanted to be taken seriously. And there was another information he had now about his new friend: he had listened to him when he explained that it was his father's house despite the argument._

 _"Doesn't seem that active", he joked, looking at the emptiness all around him._

 _He couldn't resist, to tell the truth. An idea abruptly came to mind but he preferred to ignore it for an instant, focusing on the present moment._

 _"I can't share any information with you", he firmly explained._

 _"Hesse wasn't in here alone when my father was murdered."_

 _Soon, he regretted giving this information; he wanted to find Victor himself and take revenge as he so well knew how to do. But at this point, maybe the talent he had detected in Danny could help him?_

 _"Someone was sitting at the desk in the study. There was a space cleared for a thirteen-inch laptop. And my father hated computers", he specified, hoping that Williams would understand._

 _"I'm gonna ask you again: you gotta leave", Danny asked one more time, showing the exit way._

 _According to him, he didn't seem the type to break the rules, let alone be bribed, from what he had seen so far. So, it was the haole the Governor had put on the case; he could guess it with the tie. He wasn't from here for sure: no one wore a tie in Hawaii except the guys from the mainland. And since he was only slightly tanned, he had only recently arrived. At the detective's insistence, Steve gave in. Or quite close._

 _"You got it", he said, taking the red toolbox with him._

 _"And you can leave the box. That is evidence, you know that."_

 _Definitely a tough guy, not the kind to give up. Still not close to his limits then?_

 _"I came with this", Steve assured again._

 _"No, you didn't come with it. I see the dust void it left here on the counter. What's in the box?"_

 _Once again, Steve couldn't help but to go and tickle the policeman where it hurt to see how far he could go._

 _"What are you hiding?"_

 _"How long you've been in the Honolulu PD?" he cut the cop with a grin on his face as he was facing the biggest cop cliches he'd ever seen._

 _"None of your business. What are you, Barbara Walter?"_

 _Humorist on top of that?_

 _"You know, it is my business if you're investigating my father's death."_

 _He was still suspicious, especially after what he had just heard on the recording: the Hawaiian police were partially corrupt and he no longer knew who to trust. If the same police were investigating the case, he wanted to be sure that the officer in charge was not a dirty cop._

 _"I am. And I'd like to get back to that. So the sooner you leave, the sooner I can!"_

 _"Anything you say", he stepped closer to the door._

 _"Leave the box or get arrested. Alright?"_

 _A challenge Steve couldn't refuse. He trusted his abilities and knew, according to himself, that he was much stronger than his opponent._

 _"You're gonna call for backup?" Steve asked seriously, although ready to burst out laughing._

 _"An ambulance."_

 _Again this deep tone? Detective Williams would never give up, he was now sure of this. A man straight in his shoes, who seemed to be a good cop and confident in his own body and abilities while being able to stand up to him? Either he was crazy or... He had found Freddie's worthy heir. The idea he had had a few minutes earlier came to mind again: the Governor had proposed to him to create a unit with a free pass to track down criminals, including Victor Hesse, and the opportunity was now ideal to accept this request. He no longer felt at home in the Navy now, not after the death of his friend, his brother in heart and his partner in crime. He no longer felt worthy to belong to the family that had helped him to rebuild himself and that had now destroyed him again. A new start with a new team, that's what he needed. And his first teammate, the one who could take care of his six by covering him while containing him? He had this guy in front of him. He was sure of that._

* * *

A bright light burning his retinas. And a shadow in the corner of the eye. These were the first things he could see when he instinctively opened his blue eyes. His vision was blurry, too imprecise to guess what that moving shadow near him was. Sounds, incessant and powerful, came to him and gave him a migraine. After many seconds of concentration and blinks, his senses became more and more precise. One beep, then two. Then many others followed, a constant and slow order that he appreciated. A hiss followed by a long thumping sound, in low frequency. This sequence also came back, more spaced apart in time than the beeping dance but from a surgical constant. The shadow became clearer. A face. Someone was close to him.

"Steve?"

That voice was the same as before. Except this time, it was not filled with sadness but with hope. Danno. He did not hesitate for a second: he looked at him as if he had become his anchor in the blur that terrified him. At least something, someone he knew and trusted, was there. The top of the shadow became lighter, more yellow.: his partner's dark blond hair. His face, torn and tired, became more distinct.

"Babe, can you hear me?"

Yes, Danny: He could hear you. And he was so sad to see you so weak and torn by fatigue that it broke his heart.

* * *

 **A/N:** **So, what do you think about this chapter? Good? Not good enough? Bad? What about Steve's fear? Have you guessed what it was (in my opinion) with all the clues I have written down in that story so far? What about Grace?**

 **Give me your opinion in a review please, it'll help me a lot for the following chapters.**

 **See you for the next one!**


	11. Control

Hello peole! I hope you do well so far. It's freezing here (-2°C/28.4°F) and usually, our first frost days are in mid-November. A lot to do in the garden because most plants were not acclimated to freezing mornings, a lot of things to do... YES, I've been busy BUT I thought about giving you another chapter. Great, right?

It is a very special one because there is a very serious conversation (about Steve) between Danny and the primary doctor of the ICU. And there is another one, cutter this time, between Grace and Charlie. I couldn't resist! Their fraternity is so underdeveloped in the show and we see them very rarely! So enjoy it as much as you can: and if I can give them an appearance in each of my chapters of this story, I will (yes yes: I will try).

But now, time for a new chapter! Take your time to read; hopefully, I did not make very huge mistakes in it (not sure though: still learning English).

ENJOY!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 11**

Danny Williams was more than happy. Actually, he could not describe his feelings. They were too powerful to name and quantify them. It barely lasted a few seconds, a magical moment and yet ephemeral, but it had been more than enough to revive the fading hope as time went by. He wanted to get up, jump and scream his joy in front of this world as soon as he had seen Steve's eyes open wide and his gaze rest on his face. He hadn't forgotten who he was. The fact that his brain had stayed a short amount of time without oxygen had hinted the worst but now, the doubt was gone.

Danny had noticed the increasing heartbeat shortly after he had finished his line. As Dr. Yen told him, it was one way to find out if his brother was dreaming or hallucinating and his theory about them was right: talking to him could trigger them, like it was making his memory work. And by the time his eyes opened and settled on him, his heart rate had subsided drastically, akin to saying that he had recognized him and trusted him enough to calm down. As if he had been afraid the moment before. Maybe this feeling of being paralyzed had accentuated his phobia, the one he preferred to keep quiet because, according to him, a real NavySEAL was never scared. It was not true, obviously. Junior had told him one day that everyone was afraid of something and that a NavySEAL was able to put it away to move forward, to save lives and success in his missions. After that conversation with the new member of the Task Force, he realized what Steve meant: showing his fears could be a very powerful weapon during a war and camouflaging them was a way to survive in hostile environments.

But the Commander was no longer a SEAL, he was in the Marine Reserve now. He didn't need to hide anymore. Getting him to admit his fears was undoubtedly going to be the most delicate and difficult mission Danny had ever faced but he was prepared. He had collected evidence and had analyzed them mentally, coupling all of them to deduce what Steve's biggest fear was. He had googled it just to find the name for it but he couldn't. The was no proper word for it but the closest he had found was neophobia; the fear of the unknown. Whether it was situations or places or people, food neophobia was most prevalent among children. For Steve, new things meant that he didn't know what to expect and that this new thing, this new place, could be dangerous both for his life and for his relatives, something he couldn't bear at all.

This was why he rarely made any exceptions to his routine. That was why he always took Navy showers, why he always went swimming and running when he had woken up at five in the morning, no matter what time he went to bed, why he kept the habit of putting butter in his coffee, why he always prepared it the old-fashioned way. There were so many things Steve had kept from his military past. This was where his need to control what was around him came from. If he had his hands on the situation, he knew what was going to happen. But as soon as he didn't have this essential control, he was uncomfortable, he did everything to prevent it from happening and above all, something very serious happened every time he wasn't in control. The fake death of his mother, the death of his father, of Freddie, his multiple captures by Wo Fat, his many injuries, the death of Governor Jameson, his capture in Afghanistan, the many bombs they had to face together. Now that he thought about it, he could have guessed all this from their first day of partnership.

And he could have been there to talk to him about all this, just as Steve was by his side when he had to face his claustrophobia. Danny never went down to the basement of the building alone, he was never going to lock himself in impossible places without his partner being near him, he never left him in a stressful situation on a plane, giving him the seat near the window to allow him to see the outside and forget that he was locked in a flying cabin. He didn't say it, but it melted his heart. At least he wasn't as cold as he was at the beginning of 5-0!

A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts. Since Steve had opened his eyes and had closed them shortly after, he only expected one thing to happen and he was obsessed with it. He strongly shook his head, feeling the tension accumulated over his back. The door opened, revealing Sarah in her pink coat. She smiled, something he gave her back in spite of the fatigue.

"How is he doing?" Sarah asked in a calm tone.

"He, uh... He opened his eyes a few minutes ago but he closed them again almost immediately."

"This is wonderful news. The medications are still in his system and the time to wean off, it might be hard for him to stay awake for more than a few seconds", she explained, approaching the bed. "When it will be weaned off, he will stay awake much longer."

Danny nodded, understanding what it meant. The more time would pass, the longer Steve would keep his eyes open each time he would wake up. Seeing something in the nurse's hand, he focused on it, wanting to know what it was.

"What's in your hand?"

"Your daughter's blood."

Sarah smiled, hooking the blood bag on the IV pole next to the bed.

"Usually, we should only have taken the plasma but with Grace's particularities, it is possible for us to take all the blood components. It should accelerate the healing process."

Once the IV hooked up to the central line, she adjusted the flow so that it did not affect McGarrett's bloodstream.

"I, uh... Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, of course. Something is bothering you?"

"Well... Yes. I mean, no. It's about Steve."

"Ah, I see. I think it would be wiser to talk about it with Dr. Yen. I am just a nurse."

"This is why I ask you. I need your opinion."

"Alright. Tell me."

He sighed, repositioning himself on the couch.

"I know Steve enough to say that keeping him connected to a machine breathing for him when he'll be awake is a very bad idea."

"Unfortunately, we do not have any other choice. We can't keep him in a medically induced coma because his system can't tolerate the medications and we certainly can't get him off the vent. He's too weak to breathe without assistance."

"I get it, trust me. But if Steve fully wakes up and realizes that he can not breathe, he will panic for sure. And if he panics, I can assure you that everything Dr. Yen did to save his life surgery will be vain. He would have to be done again. If it were possible."

"Are you telling me that right now, Commander McGarrett could unconsciously... Harm himself?"

"More likely to kill himself", Danny admitted with the knot in his throat.

"I page Dr. Yen", she quickly said, taking her pager in hand.

This revelation shocked her, although she didn't understand everything at all. Maybe the police officer had the answer but didn't want to talk about it? Analyzing the situation, she comprehended his silence on this subject: the NavySEALs were proud men. Admitting to being afraid was seen as a betrayal for them, it was a weakness that could cost someone's life, especially his own.

"How was he when he was awake?"

"Oh, uh... It only lasted a few seconds. Talking to him seemed to have triggered a dream or something... His heart rate elevated and when he opened his eyes and he decreased immediately. And... And then he got back to sleep. I think he didn't realize he was hooked to a machine breathing for him."

"I see. You are scared that on the next awakening, he will notice."

"I am scared every time he's in a hospital bed", he admitted out loud. "Unlike him, I can say that I am afraid. It's impossible for him."

"NavySEALs are very prudent when it comes to exposing emotions. They are trained to erase them in order to succeed in their missions. As a result, they do not really know how to show them once readjusted for civilian life."

"Readjusted? If you really had known Steve, you'd know what I'm talking about. Oh, wait: you know him, just like Dr. Yen and Dr., uh... The one from the ER... Damn, what's his name..."

"Dr. Malaka?"

"Yes, David Malaka. You all know each other, right?"

"We did a few tours, indeed. I was in transmission, McGarrett was a SEAL, the two doctors were in the Navy Intel. We had collaborated on several sensitive missions but you know the rules I suppose, Detective."

"Yeah, I know the rules: you can't talk about it because it's classified. But you know what I mean, right?"

"I think I do but I can't pretend to know what's going on McGarrett's head or the bonds between the two of you."

Tired, he sighed again, trying to press his right hand over his face but the pain paralyzed him. He had completely forgotten about his nearly-broken hand.

"You should rest. Really. What's gonna think McGarrett if you are not healthy enough?"

"I can already see an argument between us, stop it please."

Sarah started smiling just when the door opened again with Chang Yen revealing himself.

"You paged me, Sarah?"

"Yes. Yes, I did page you. Detective Williams needs to talk to you right now."

"Something bothering you, Detective?"

"Uh... Yes, actually. I-I think keeping that this breathing machine will only do more harm to him and help. I know him, he's going to fight it as soon as he's fully awake."

"We have already discussed it Detective Williams and I can assure you there is no other way. He could breathe on his own for a few minutes but after those, he's gonna need assistance. This is why he needs to stay on the vent."

"And I can tell you he's gonna fight the tube", he said, emphasizing the I. "Please, trust me on that one: if he has a tube down his throat when he wakes up, he will start fighting and if so, the job you did to keep him alive would have to be done again for sure. It can kill him."

"I think you're a little overdramatic, Detective."

"I'm not, alright?"

He was having a moment of deja-vu, thinking about the moment Steve jumped off a roof chasing a bad guy right after having been released from the hospital, a few weeks after his liver transplant and the life-threatening injury he received. But he would fight for his friend and brother until he had the lost word on the little chat he was having with the physician.

"I know how things work with him more than anyone in this room and if I say that he's gonna fight, then he will do."

"You really think you know my job better than I do?"

"Right now, yes", he said, raising his voice. "You swore to protect your patients and give them the treatment they deserve whoever they are. And right now, you don't treat Steve properly."

"Why are you so certain he's gonna fight the tube as soon as he wakes up?"

"Because he won't have control of what's happening to him! Alright?!" he shouted at the doctor, completely out of his mind.

His blood was boiling and rising to his head, he could feel the heat invade his whole body.

"Steve is a control-freak, and sometimes it drives me crazy", he said more calmly. "He needs to be in control because otherwise, he thinks something bad can happen. If he can't breathe on his own, he won't be in control and therefore, he would not have control and therefore, he will try to control something that escapes him. And when that happens, believe me, I do not want to be here. He becomes an animal in the true sense of the word. Prevent him from breathing on his own, and as I said to Sarah, he will kill himself without wanting to."

He did not like to explain that kind of thing. It concerned Steve's life and more particularly an aspect of himself that he hated to show, let alone talk about him. He felt like betraying him, but it was absolutely necessary for Dr. Yen to understand that he was wrong. He was never going to let his best friend hurt himself because a doctor had not listened to him.

"There must be a way, a compromise, I don't know, whatever. A way for him to breathe on his own, but to compensate with something else if he is too weak to do it, I don't know. You're the doctor here."

After this stormy exchange, or rather this monologue of Danny, a man more than tired after the crazy day he had just had, the doctor and the nurse looked at each other, doubtful. They had probably thought the same thing or they didn't really understand what the officer was trying to say.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Sarah?"

"I... I think so, yes. Shall I call Ethan?"

"Yes, tell him to come here. Please."

The nurse nodded and left the room, under Danny's incredulous gaze.

"What are you thinking? And who is this Ethan?"

"Alright, I will tell you all about this IF you calm down and take a seat."

Impatient to have explanations, he could only resolve to accept the doctor's request despite the anger he was fighting. He sat down, sighed for a long time and crossed his arms as best he could with the resin bandage on his right arm.

"Alright, now that I'm sitting down, are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Dr. Yen swallowed his saliva and came to join him on the couch, ready to talk to him calmly. He was aware that he had to redeem himself after this intense moment.

"Ethan McBrown is a respiratory therapist. And he may have the solution to help the Commander. He probably has the opportunity to find the... The compromise you're talking about."

Danny instantly realized that Sarah and Chang knew about this compromise but Dr. Yen didn't want to give him false hope by explaining the whole situation to him. This Ethan probably had to agree in the first place before he would explain what was going to happen now.

"I can't tell you more, but if Dr. McBrown can help, he'll explain to you everything there is to know."

"Okay."

Danny was not entirely satisfied, but the fact that Steve's doctor thought of a possibility to calm his patient down gave him enough self-confidence. Once again, the door opened and a man he didn't know came into the room. At first glance, he didn't seem older than Tani or Junior and yet, he had such an aura that Danny could only admire him. A respiratory therapist then... What he could do for Steve?

"Ethan."

"Chang. Need a consult? Sarah was pretty vague when we talked."

"Yes."

The doctor got up from the couch and came next to his colleague, ready to explain the whole situation with as most details as possible.

"This is Lieutenant-Commander Steve McGarrett, head of 5-0. He underwent a blind thoracic and cardiac surgery after being shot today. Unfortunately, his body rejects the medication for the medically induced coma so we have to keep him awake. But he is also too weak in my opinion to breathe on his own for more than a few minutes so it is impossible to remove the respirator. His brother, Detective Williams, just told me that if the commander wakes up unable to breathe on his own, he could unintentionally aggravate his injuries to the point of death."

"Okay, so what do I have to do with it?"

"I was thinking about your trial."

"The AIV?"

Dr. Yen nodded with a slight smile lighting his face.

"Hold on for a second", Danny interrupted them. "What's this trial and what is this... This AIV?"

"I'll explain what it is", Dr. McBrown insisted with his colleague.

After all, it was his studies.

"Do you see this screen?" he asked, pointing to a small screen, the one from the machine breathing for Steve.

"Yes?"

"You can see a peak going up and then down. This corresponds to inhalation and then exhalation from the machine. Are you following so far?"

"For now."

Not seeing where this explanation would lead him, he let the doctor continue.

"When you breathe on your own, you don't notice it but you have a reflex, we call this a _trigger_. It is a residue of information sent by the brain to the pulmonary muscles to initiate the breathing process. If it were to be translated on this same screen, it would be a small peak going down before going up to indicate an inhalation and down to indicate an exhalation."

"All right and, uh... I don't mean to be harsh, but how can these explanations help Steve not to panic and not to get out of control?"

"I'm coming to that now."

Danny straightened up, calmly waiting for the rest of the explanation. As a police officer, his instinct and ability to investigate made him more or less guess what this trial was, but he wanted to have certainty from the therapist.

"AIV, artificial intelligence ventilation, is a semi-artificial ventilation mode that I have developed, which is currently being tested on patients who do not tolerate conventional ventilation. To summarize, the artificial intelligence is able to capture and analyze these triggers and thus, let the patients be in control when triggers are perceived. Simply, if the IA perceives a trigger, he will let the patient breathe on his own with the oxygen coming from the machine. If within five seconds after the end of the exhalation, it perceives another trigger, it continues to let the patient control his breathing. Otherwise, if it does not perceive one, the machine takes control and performs the breathing process for the patient until the AI perceives a trigger again."

It was unexpected for Danny. It was exactly what Steve needed, right here and right now. If the machine was able to let Steve breathe on his own when he felt the need while remaining intubated, leaving a safety measure just in case he was too weak to breathe without assistance...

"Oah, it seems... Unreal."

"And yet, not impossible", Dr. McBrown replied.

"So, Detective? What do you think?" Dr. Yen asked, focusing on Danny. "Do you think it could work?"

It took him some time before he realized that a question had been asked to him. He was totally shocked, surprised by this information but at the same time excited to know that his brother might not hurt himself any more.

"If this-this AIV really can do this, it might work. He might fight a little the time to understand that he can breathe on his own even with this tube down his throat but I can deal with this."

"I'll go find my upgrade."

"Upgrade?"

"Yes, AIV is like your applications on your phone, but for the breathing machine."

Danny nodded, completely overwhelmed by numerous emotions. As the therapist left the room, Dr. Yen turned toward the cop, concerned about his health.

"You should rest, Detective. And eat and drink. Have you got any meal today?"

"A little. Couldn't keep anything down anyway", he told the truth.

"You should try again. If the Commander sees you like this when he wakes up..."

He didn't finish the sentence but Danny guessed what he meant. He didn't need a mirror to know that he was out of it and looked like a ghost. He sighed longly, nodding to the physician.

"I will", he said with a smile.

Chang Yen left the room soon after, leaving the police officer on his own with Steve. Truth to be told, he was too focussed on his best friend to even think about leaving him alone, even for a drink or a snack. What if he woke up again and he wasn't there to talk to him and get through the awful sensation he would feel? No, he had to stay here in the room.

At the nurse's office on the other side, the physician was concerned more about the visitor than his patient right now. It wasn't a promise he had made but he was sure he would not leave the room for anything.

"Sarah, do we have any food tray left?"

"Uh... I don't think so."

"Can you do me a favor and bring some heated food for Detective Williams? And a bottle of water? He won't leave the room for sure."

"Right away. Edwige should come back some from her lunch break."

"It's past midnight."

"We had a very hard shift."

"I agree. Six hours to go before next shift."

Sarah smiled despite feeling very tired from the busy day they just underwent.

"Do you realize that there are four people from the same military operation back in the early twenty-first century in the same city in the world? With three of them working in the same hospital?"

Now that she had said it out loud, it was hard to believe that four members of an operation aware from less than thirty people were in the same area of the world. Operation Strawberry Field had been very special back in the day but even now they had an unnoticed bond uniting them.

"I... I didn't realize it until now but yes, the odds are very weird. I will do one last tour before trying to get some rest."

"I'll try not to wake you up."

They went to separate ways, Sarah going to find some food to heat up before going back to Steve's room and Chang going to see his other patients before hoping to get some sleep in the medical staff's restroom.

* * *

On the other side of the city center of Honolulu, the main town of Hawaii, everyone was sleeping in the Hollister's house. Mary had agreed to stay there with Joan, mostly to please Charlie and Grace. They had ordered pizzas for dinner, as recommended by the little boy: after the very stressful day, Rachel could not resist to please her children and her guests. Both adults had tried to distract their kids from thinking about their favorite uncle but Grace, the older one, wasn't keen on forgetting what she had seen. Actually, she was still awake at one in the morning. Every time she tried to close her eyes and get some rest, she could only think about Steve and see him in this bed, surrounded by machines keeping him alive. Kids were not allowed to visit patients in the ICU before turning eighteen and most physicians preferred waiting for twenty-one. Now she had realized why: these scenes were rather difficult to process.

Unable to close her eyes, she straightened up in her bed and turned on the light, a slightly dimmed atmosphere quickly flooding her bedroom. At the same time, she heard the door open very slowly. Surprised, she turned to it, waiting to know if it was her mother or someone else. What could she say to her to justify her current behavior? How was she going to explain to her mother that she couldn't close her eyes because every time, she saw Steve in that damn hospital bed? Once the door was half-open, a small blond-head erupted in the room, wearing the pajamas his uncle had offered him. Charlie. He was holding his teddy bear very tightly and he seemed lost.

"Charlie? What are you still doing up?" she asked him, whispering for fear of waking up the whole house. "It's the middle of the night."

"I can't sleep", he confessed in a small voice.

Sensitive as she was, Grace could not hold back her emotion. If she was in this state after having seen her uncle, Charlie must have been chocked without realizing it.

"Aw, come here."

As gently as when he entered, he closed the door behind him and started walking to join his sister. She moved slightly to leave some space for her brother, who climbed onto the bed and penetrated the blankets. Grace adjusted her position, making sure to hold Charlie in her arms. She let a long kiss slip off his forehead, something she did when he was not feeling good.

"Do you think about Uncle Steve too?"

Without a word, he nodded, huddling in his sister's arms, who began to hug him a little more.

"Everything will be fine, trust me. Danno is with him and he watches over him."

"Why are there bad guys everywhere? What did Uncle Steve do wrong?"

"He didn't do anything wrong, Charlie. Sometimes being a good guy is not enough. Even if all possible precautions are taken, an injury cannot be predicted. And... A bad guy, most of the time, they didn't have a good example. A dad or a mom who was mean to him, his classmates at school, a difficult neighborhood. Anything can make a person become mean. We'll never be bad, but maybe when we grow up, we can stop them and change them?"

"Is that possible?"

"Why not? If we can explain to them what's right and what's wrong, maybe we can just get them to change?"

Grace hadn't believed this theory for a long time, but her brother... He was still too young to understand the whole scheme. His world was still only a glittering and kind one and did not yet understand all the faces of the world.

"You are already a very good girl, Grace."

"How come?"

"You can donate your blood to save people. Can you do that too to the bad guys, so they can turn into good guys?"

"Oh. I didn't think of it like this. But maybe. I don't know."

Grace realized what he meant by this: he thought that the blood in our bodies made us good or bad and that if a bad person received blood from a good person, he would turn into a good guy. Charlie was so innocent that she didn't want him to grow up under any circumstances. It would be too cruel if, with all this innocence, he ever realized that everything he believed in was wrong.

"There will always be bad people in the world. And that's why there are good people who make sure to stop them. To make a world in which there are more nice people. That's why Danno, Uncle Steve, Uncle Lou, Junes and Aunt Tani are police officers: they stop the bad guys, they try to change them and very often, they can't do it."

"Do you know people who were bad and became good?"

Grace thought about it, trying to find a good example so that her little brother could understand the importance of police actions. Certainly, he already knew what his father and his uncles and aunts could do as police officers but he was missing something. An idea came to her; she didn't know if it would work, but she remembered a story that her Uncle Chin had told her a few years earlier.

"Did you know that Kamekona had been bad guys before?"

"That's not true", Charlie said, sure of himself.

"I swear to you, it's true. That was a long time ago. Uncle Chin arrested him and offered him to go to the good guys' side and he became an informant. Do you know what it is?"

"Not really."

"Well, an informant is someone who was mean and now, he gives information to the police about ongoing cases. Do you remember Sang Min?"

"The Chinese guy with a weird accent?"

Grace smiled, amused by Charlie's brief and perfect description.

"That's right. He was the first bad guy Uncle Steve and Danno ever arrested. And now he's a good guy. Because he was given a second chance. He has helped the 5-0 a lot on several cases."

A little silence settled until Charlie spoke again.

"Grace: Kamekona and Sang Min, what did they do when they were bad?"

"I don't know about that. I believe Kamekona was selling forbidden products and Sang Min was introducing unauthorized products and people into Hawaii."

For fear of frightening her brother, she did not tell him that the "Chinese with a strong accent" was smuggling children of his age in illegally and selling them to the highest bidders after having drugged them. Especially since Sang Min had been relatively very nice to Charlie for the past years.

"Now you have to try to get some sleep", she explained to her little brother.

"Can I stay here with you? I'm scared."

When Charlie was younger and couldn't sleep, he often came to his sister's room to slip under the sheets and be in her arms. It was like a little cocoon in which he was, a protective bubble allowed him to feel safe enough to finally be able to sleep without a nightmare.

"Of course, you can."

She repositioned herself again, keeping Charlie close to her and covering him with her arms. It only took them a few minutes to fall asleep with the dimmed light still on.

* * *

 **A/N:** **What do you think about this chapter? Any thoughts? Any suggestions? Any concerns, any complaints? If so, tell me about it (or them) in a review and I will make sure to answer you (if I can) or add your ideas in the story.**

 **I already have a perfect (recommended) moment with our favorite McDanno for the next chapter and probably a lot to say. It might take some time for me to write it down but I'll do my best to do it within a short amount of time.**

 **In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this story so far and I can't wait to share with you what's next!**


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